Cloudy Arran Hills

Cloudy Arran Hills

6. April 2013

An diesem Tag wurden die Wolken zu einem bildbestimmenden Element,
aber auch die wuchtige Bergkulisse hat mich beeindruckt.

Donnie Munro - Catch the Wind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH20e3gPk_g

Geology of Arran

The rocks of north Arran, are divided geologically from the rest of the island by part of the Highland Boundary Fault - a great crack in the earth's crust which separates Highland Scotland from the Lowlands of the Midland Valley. In Arran, the fault cannot easily be seen at the surface, but it curves round the granite from the coast north of Lochranza to emerge again at the coast at Dougarie.

Igneous rocks, which include granites and lavas, occupy almost half of the area of Arran. These rocks were formed 50-60 million years ago (Tertiary period), when Arran was probably joined to the mainland. At that time, the area was dominated by a large volcano which later collapsed to create a surface depression, or caldera, nearly 5km in diameter. The remnants of this caldera are between the String Road and the Ross Road, although little can be seen at the surface.

In the north, the hills of Arran are carved from the remains of a large mass of molten magma which pushed its way up into the earth's crust. When this molten granite forced its way upwards, it lifted the overlying rocks by around 3000m. As those rocks eroded away, the underlying granite was exposed, which also then began to be eroded, creating the features which are visible today.

Source: http://www.castlekirk.co.uk/geology.html