Mull Geology

When driving back from Aviemore the other week, I noticed that the fresh snow on the Morvern hills really  brought out the trap featuring in the lavas. The individual layers were emphasised by the light covering of snow. It looks like a terraced landscape. I saw this same effect years ago in Torridon. where the strata in the sandstone that makes up most of Liathach was really obvious Here is a pic of the Morvern hills: And here is an enlargement of the hill: Showing the lava flows really well. Can pick out individual flows.  Of course there is good trap featuring in the Mull lavas as well, but I didnt have the opportunity to take any pictures of them. The word "trap" comes from the Swedish word "trappa" meaning a stair and is a common feature of the lava flows in North Mull and especially in the Ardmeanach peninsula.

First post in the new geology blog. Just to get started, here is a picture of an erratic boulder on the south east side of Iona - a large piece of Ross of Mull Granite from the other side fo the Sound of Iona, brought there by the ice 12 - 15000 years ago. The grey heart shaped thing is a xenolith - a piece of country rock that has been caught up in the molten granite before it solidified at depth The hammer is for scale - it is about 10" long. There are lots of erratic boulders of granite in Iona - all over the island. Will have more pics of them on the actual geology web site once it gets up and going JW, January 2016