Strange rock

Hello,

Today dawned beautifully bright and sunny and since the forecast is not great for the next few days, we jumped in the car and hightailed it to a nearby bit of coast. This is Kingsbarns, just along from St Andrews, and it is absolutely teeming with geology - or rocks, if you want to be pedantic.

Maisie ran around chasing her ball, and we pondered the provenance of this strange red rock you can see in the foreground of the picture.

The main slabs of rock (we think) are the host sandstone, tilted and fractured by volcanic or earthquake activity. The black lump of rock out in the sea is a bit of lava, probably from the Isle of May or associated volcanic sills out in the Firth of Forth. The large red pockmarked lump however caused a long discussion. It is sandstone - and a very iron-rich sandstone at that, and at first we thought the holes were not deep enough to be piddock activity, but research on line when we got home says it probably is 'the action of boring molluscs, or pholads.' Piddocks, to you and me.

 We are not attending the St Andrews Open Association geology course this term, but instead are trying to get out to the sites we went to on the course and attempt to 'consolidate our knowledge'. Or, alternatively, stand around scratching our heads!

No matter - it was a lovely day with gorgeous blue sea and sky, no wind and incredibly mild temperatures considering it's still mid-January. Maisie got good and salty, too.