SCOTLAND GEOLOGY; The Northwest Highlands, Guest Post by Paige Arnold

View of Sango Bay, Scotland.

With many thanks to my granddaughter Paige, a student at Amherst College, for sharing her photos of her trip to Scotland in June and her breadth of knowledge of Scotland's geology. 

During my second semester of this past school year, I took a geology field trip class where we learned all about the geologic history of Scotland. This class culminated in a week-long trip to the NorthwestHighlands of Scotland, during which we traveled around to different sites of geologic interest and had the opportunity to see the rocks we had been learning about all semester. Here are some pictures from the trip!

This bridge gave us a great view of some old lake terraces in Achnascheen! Each step you see on the sloping edge of the hill in the center represents the bottom of an ancient glacial lake, with the upper steps being the earlier lake bottoms which were then cut down through by increased meltwater supply to create the next step.

A horse near our hostel in Torridon with Loch Torridon in the background. Loch Torridon is a sea loch, meaning it’s connected to the ocean, so where the water met the land varied a lot over the course of our stay–I believe this picture was taken at high tide.

View of Slioch mountain halfway up Beinn Eighe.

Another view from the Beinn Eighe hike where you can see the paleogeography of an old landscape preserved in the mountain. The slight upward curve about halfway up this mountain represents the upper boundary of the Lewisian Gneiss, which would have been the land surface until it was filled in by the Torridonian Sandstone (above the line) starting around 950 million years ago!

The holes in this rock give the rock its colloquial name “pipe rock”. They are remnants of old worm burrows in sand that has since been lithified into quartzite. These worms would have been alive and forming these burrows in the early Cambrian, around 520-510 million years ago.

Both sides of the Moine Thrust, with the Moine Schist on top of the Durness Limestone. The Moine Schist is older than the Durness limestone, but it’s been thrust up to lay on top of the limestone by tectonic movement. This kind of stratigraphic inversion is only possible via tectonic movement, and Scotland is where thrust faulting was originally discovered!

View from our hostel at sunset.

A chunk of Lewisian gneiss at Achmelvich Beach. There isn’t much to say about this picture but the clarity of the banding is pretty awesome.

Some sheep we saw from the van. I’d say we saw about half as many sheep as people.

Clachtoll Beach! It looks tropical but I promise it was just as cold as you’d expect the North Atlantic to be.

These stromatolites are some of the oldest life on Earth that is preserved in the rock record, dating to around 1.2 billion years old. Stromatolites are a kind of algal mat that accumulate in the wet season and dry out in the dry season, trapping sediment and forming these wiggly lines.

This large black stripe is a Scourie Dyke, it’s about 2 feet across and is intruding into the body of rock around it. Around 2.4 billion years ago, the body of rock around the dyke was split by tectonic activity, allowing hot magma to push up into it and solidify into this stripe.

My friend in the distance at the Arnaboll Thrust.

My friend and I touching both sides of the Arnaboll Thrust! Here the Lewisian Gneiss has been thrust upon the Cambrian Quartzite, which we can be at peace with now but is something that caused a lot of problems among geologists of the 19th century. This thrust fault caused SirCharles Lapworth (eminent geologist of the time) to have an intense mental breakdown due to visions of the entire Scottish Highlands crushing his body, as thrust faulting hadn’t been discovered up until this point and it was just all too much for him to handle. Luckily I was well prepared and was able to enjoy the rocks without descending into madness.

On our last day we “saw” some puffins (these pictures were taken by my friend with a good camera–I only saw more than a black speck once he shared his photos with us) from the cliffs of Faraid Head, which I think was a pretty solid wrap up to the week!

I hope you’ve enjoyed these rocks and maybe feel inspired to take a trip to the Northwest Highlands! I can’t promise it’ll be as sunny as it was in these photos but it’s worth it nonetheless.

BIRD WATCHING ON RUNDE ISLAND, NORWAY: Above the Cliffs and Along the Shore

Shelduck, Runde Island, Norway.

Thousands of seabirds—puffins, gannets, kittiwakes, gulls and more—make their summer home on Runde Island on the west coast of Norway. Birdwatching is always high on our list for vacation trips, so Runde was a must on our recent visit to Norway in May. After renting a car in Alesund, we drove to Runde, about a two-and-a-half hour trip which includes a ferry and numerous tunnels and bridges.

Bridge to Runde.

After leaving the main highway connecting Alesund and Bergen, we followed smaller roads along waterways, through coastal farmland (overshadowed by snow covered granite peaks), over bridges and through more tunnels, until finally arriving at the tall one-lane bridge that joins Runde to the mainland. Luckily, there is not much traffic. If you see an approaching car when you get to the top of the bridge, you wait at the layby until it passes, before proceeding down the other side.

At the information center.

Our first stop on the island was at the information center (also a café and hostel) where we learned that we were unlikely to see any puffins unless we stayed until the evening. (In mid-May the sun doesn't set until 10pm!) During the day one puffin parent goes out to sea collecting food, which it brings back at sunset to its mate, who is sitting on eggs in their tunnel nest on the cliff face. (Later in the season the food is for the puffin chicks.) So, even though we knew we probably would miss the puffins, there were plenty of other birds to see on Runde.

Starting out on the uphill path to the overlook of the bird nesting cliffs.

So, after eating a picnic lunch and parking in the designated parking lot, we set off to climb the steep path from the village to the overlook of the bird nesting cliffs. Huffing and puffing and making many stops along the way, we finally made it to the top, a distance of just one kilometer, but which seemed like much more.

As we peered over the top of the cliff face, we could see birds (gannets) wheeling over the water far below, but even with the binoculars, they were just tiny dots. We could see people at a further overlook spot, but we had no more energy for climbing and turned around to return to the bottom.

Skua.

The main path goes through a designated reserve where skuas nest. Skuas are the marauders of the bird world—in the Antarctic they prey on penguin chicks—but we had never seen them in the wild, so we felt lucky to see them here. We learned that on Runde the skuas chase the cormorants until they regurgitate the fish they have caught. Then the skuas get an easy meal. 

Pipit

On our way down the path we also spotted numerous smaller birds hopping around in the grass and perched on rocks and fenceposts.

Sheep.

Close to the village we passed a flock of sure-footed sheep, grazing on the rich green grass of the steep pasture. Like us, they were enjoying a warm, sunny day, although even in summer Runde can be cold and windy. I imagine the animals' heavy wool coats help keep them warm in the cold, dark days of winter.

Rocky shoreline on Runde.

Along the shoreline of Runde we had much better luck spotting birds. 

Greylag geese.

Some were foraging for food among the rocks or in the tall grass.

Oyster catchers.

We caught one pair of oyster catchers in the act of mating.

Kittiwake on a nest.

Some birds, like this kittiwake, were tending nests.

Kittiwakes displaying.

On the cliffs above, we watched kittiwakes performing elaborate aerial dives accompanied by loud vocalizations in what appeared to be mating rituals.

Shelduck.

In the shallow water, we spotted a swimming shelduck, its bright colors reflected in the calm water.

Shags.

And just off-shore, a group of shags had claimed a large rock. Shags are a type of cormorant. They are good swimmers and hunt for fish underwater.

After spending the night at a hotel in the nearby town of Fosnavag, we returned to Runde the following morning for more bird watching along the shore, spotting both seabirds and smaller birds like this pied wagtail.

Pied wagtail.

A total of 230 different species of birds have been sighted on Runde. Among the species we saw in our short visit were herring gulls, kittiwakes, shelducks, mallards, greylag geese, oyster catchers, hooded crows, herons, gannets, shags, swallows, wheatears, pipits, and pied wagtails. Although we never saw a puffin, the trip to Runde was still well worth the visit.

Hooded crow.

Note: Besides hiking to the top of Runde to an overlook of the cliffs, the other option for seeing the bird cliffs where the puffins nest is to take a boat trip around the island. Perhaps we can do that on another visit.

Village and path leading to cliff overlooks.

 

WATER, FIRE, AND ICE: A Photo Tour of Iceland, Guest Post by Owen Floody

Puffin on the Latrabjarg Cliffs

In May, our friend Owen Floody went on a photo tour of Iceland.  Owen recently retired from a career of teaching and research at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. He has always been an avid photographer and in his retirement has taken several trips that allow him to pursue his passion. Here is a short reflection on his recent trip to Iceland and a few of his amazing photographs. 

A recent 12-day photo tour (Around Iceland, Iceland Photo Tours, www.phototours.is) convinces me that Iceland fits the bill for a small, not-too-distant place that offers many and varied great sights. It is an attractive destination whether you're concerned with efficiency or not and regardless of your level of commitment to photography. Our tour took us to the far corners of Iceland, including many sites that most tourists wouldn't know of, couldn't reach, or both.  Most of these attractions were natural in some sense, though functioning or derelict buildings added to the variety.

Glacier Lagoon, Iceland

Our tour ran in late May, which probably corresponds to very late winter or early spring in Iceland.  This timing permitted us to catch the puffins and other birds in their finest breeding colors.  On the other hand, it may also have contributed to some challenging weather conditions, with frequent high winds and rain, even some hail and snow.  But we were all trying to become better photographers, so that maybe this weather constituted just another part of the instruction. 

Hraunfossar Waterfalls

What else did we see?  For the most part, think water, fire and ice.  Given the frequent rain, you may not be surprised to learn that much of our time was spent viewing some of Iceland's many impressive waterfalls.  One of my favorites was Hraunfossar, not far from Reykjavik.  This is a series of "lava waterfalls" that are strung out for some distance and incorporate much variety on their own.  Many of the waterfalls were extremely powerful, though I found myself especially attracted to the smaller falls or rapids, usually a bit downstream of the main falls. 

Lake Myvatn Thermal Area

At this point, I'm sure that you're thinking that all of this water might come in handy if the volcanoes and other thermal areas that Iceland is famous for were to spiral out of control.  Until this happens, however, Iceland's thermal areas enrich the landscape with volcanoes, other unusual landforms, steam, and lots of color.  We made three visits to the Lake Myvatn thermal area and continued to find other parts of it hidden away and offering new attractions.

Black Sand Beach

What do water and thermal activity create when combined?  Well, in Iceland, one of the products is the wonderful black-sand beaches that line part of the coast and which are especially impressive when the sea is stormy.  In a more practical vein, the water and thermal activity provide Iceland with much or all of its electricity, permitting it to avoid many or all of the financial and climatic costs of reliance on fossil fuels.

Finally, ice.  Perhaps my favorite of all Iceland's offerings were the glaciers and their offspring, the icebergs that littered the associated glacier lakes or lagoons.  Collectively, these icebergs were the ultimate chameleons: They varied in size, shape and color, and were wonderful to see in any light or weather.  What can be equally attractive when clear, blue or covered in dirt?  I think that you know the answer.

Derelict House

Though our travels in Iceland were extensive, one would have to visit at several times of the year to (a) access all parts of the island, and (b) see its many attractions under all possible weather and lighting conditions.  I plan to chip away at this on future trips.  The only problem will be that of avoiding immobilization by indecision about when and where to go next!

You can read about some of Owen's other photographic journeys in his posts of May 6, 2013 Tanzania: African Wildlife Up Close; and May 20, 2013 Nepal: Shrines, Temples and Breathtaking Scenery.