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Waterloo Bay
Waterloo Bay is an area of foreshore in Larne on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is of particular interest to geologists because it provides a clear, complete and accessible example of the sequences from Upper Triassic to Lower Jurassic, when the rock types changed from land to marine. Geology Early investigation Joseph Ellison Portlock studied the Triassic and Jurassic rocks of Ireland in 1843 as part of his engagement by Ordnance Survey Ireland. In 1864 Ralph Tate made an investigation of the Triassic rocks of County Antrim, which he reported to the Geological Society of London. Status and significance Because the location provides an unusually clear, complete and accessible example of the sequences from Upper Triassic to Lower Jurassic, when the rock types changed from land to marine, Waterloo Bay was designated an Area of Special Scientific Interest for its geological importance in 1995. In 2007, it was a candidate for Global Boundary Stratotype Sec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mercia Mudstone Group
The Mercia Mudstone Group is an early Triassic lithostratigraphic group (a sequence of rock strata) which is widespread in Britain, especially in the English Midlands – the name is derived from the ancient kingdom of Mercia which corresponds to that area. It is frequently encountered in older literature as the Keuper Marl or Keuper Marl Series. The Mercia Mudstone Group is now divided into five formations recognised and mappable across its entire outcrop and subcrop. The formations are a mix of mudstones, siltstones, sandstones and halites. Historically this sequence of rocks has been subdivided in different ways with different names in each of the basinal areas in which it is found. Increasing knowledge of the sequences and the more recent development of seamless electronic mapping by the British Geological Survey (BGS) necessitated a reappraisal of these divisions. A report published by BGS in 2008 recommended the abandonment of previous divisions and naming schemes in favour o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Global Boundary Stratotype Section And Point
A Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) is an internationally agreed upon reference point on a stratigraphic section which defines the lower boundary of a stage on the geologic time scale. The effort to define GSSPs is conducted by the International Commission on Stratigraphy, a part of the International Union of Geological Sciences. Most, but not all, GSSPs are based on paleontological changes. Hence GSSPs are usually described in terms of transitions between different faunal stages, though far more faunal stages have been described than GSSPs. The GSSP definition effort commenced in 1977. As of 2022, 77 of the 101 stages that need a GSSP have a ratified GSSP. Rules A geologic section has to fulfill a set of criteria to be adapted as a GSSP by the ICS. The following list summarizes the criteria: * A GSSP has to define the lower boundary of a geologic stage. * The lower boundary has to be defined using a primary marker (usually first appearance datum of a fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geology Of Ireland
The geology of Ireland consists of the study of the rock formations on the island of Ireland. It includes rocks from every age from Proterozoic to Holocene and a large variety of different rock types is represented. The basalt columns of the Giant's Causeway together with geologically significant sections of the adjacent coast have been declared a World Heritage Site. The geological detail follows the major events in Ireland's past based on the geological timescale. Timeline The oldest known Irish rock is about 1.7 billion years old and is found on Inishtrahull Island off the north coast of Ulster. Outcrops at Annagh Head on the Mullet Peninsula are almost as old. In other parts of Donegal, scientists have discovered rocks that originated as glacial deposits, demonstrating that at this early period, part of what was to become Ireland was in the grip of an ice age. However, because of the effects of later upheavals, it is almost impossible to sequence these early rock layers corre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protected Areas Of County Antrim
Protection is any measure taken to guard a thing against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although the mechanisms for providing protection vary widely, the basic meaning of the term remains the same. This is illustrated by an explanation found in a manual on electrical wiring: Some kind of protection is a characteristic of all life, as living things have evolved at least some protective mechanisms to counter damaging environmental phenomena, such as ultraviolet light. Biological membranes such as bark on trees and skin on animals offer protection from various threats, with skin playing a key role in protecting organisms against pathogens and excessive water loss. Additional structures like scales and hair offer further protection from the elements and from predators, with some animals having features such as spines or camouflage servin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Rock Formations In The United Kingdom
This is a selected list of notable, natural landscape features in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It includes isolated, scenic, or spectacular surface rock outcrops. These formations are usually the result of weathering and erosion sculpting the existing rock. For the stratigraphic term 'formation' applied by geologists to rock sequences, see Formation (stratigraphy). England *Avon Gorge, Bristol *Brimham Rocks, Nidderdale, Yorkshire * Cheddar Gorge and Cave, Somerset * Cheesewring, Bodmin Moor, Cornwall *Dovedale, Derbyshire *Durdle Door, Dorset *Ebbor Gorge, Somerset * Hunstanton cliffs, Norfolk * Lathkill Dale, Derbyshire *Lydford Gorge, Devon *The Needles, Isle of Wight *Old Harry Rocks, Dorset *Penninis, St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly * Pulpit Rock, Isle of Portland, Dorset * Tar Rocks, Isle of Portland, Dorset Scotland *Ailsa Craig, Firth of Clyde *Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh *Bass Rock, Firth of Forth *Beinn Eighe, Wester Ross *The Cobbler, Argyll and Bute *C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geology Of Northern Ireland
The geology of Ireland consists of the study of the rock formations on the island of Ireland. It includes rocks from every age from Proterozoic to Holocene and a large variety of different rock types is represented. The basalt columns of the Giant's Causeway together with geologically significant sections of the adjacent coast have been declared a World Heritage Site. The geological detail follows the major events in Ireland's past based on the geological timescale. Timeline The oldest known Irish rock is about 1.7 billion years old and is found on Inishtrahull Island off the north coast of Ulster. Outcrops at Annagh Head on the Mullet Peninsula are almost as old. In other parts of Donegal, scientists have discovered rocks that originated as glacial deposits, demonstrating that at this early period, part of what was to become Ireland was in the grip of an ice age. However, because of the effects of later upheavals, it is almost impossible to sequence these early rock layers corre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syneresis (chemistry)
Syneresis (also spelled 'synæresis' or 'synaeresis'), in chemistry, is the extraction or expulsion of a liquid from a gel, such as when serum drains from a contracting clot of blood. Another example of syneresis is the collection of whey on the surface of yogurt. Syneresis can also be observed when the amount of diluent in a swollen polymer exceeds the solubility limit as the temperature changes. A household example of this is the counterintuitive expulsion of water from dry gelatin when the temperature increases. Syneresis has also been proposed as the mechanism of formation for the amorphous silicate composing the frustule of diatoms. Examples In the processing of dairy milk, for example during cheese making, syneresis is the formation of the curd due to the sudden removal of the hydrophilic macropeptides, which causes an imbalance in intermolecular forces. Bonds between hydrophobic sites start to develop and are enforced by calcium bonds, which form as the water molecules ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slump (geology)
A slump is a form of mass wasting that occurs when a coherent mass of loosely consolidated materials or a rock layer moves a short distance down a Grade_(slope), slope. Movement is characterized by sliding along a concave-upward or planar surface. Causes of slumping include Earthquake, earthquake shocks, thorough wetting, freezing and thawing, undercutting, and loading of a slope. Translational slumps occur when a detached landmass moves along a planar surface. Common planar surfaces of failure include joints or bedding planes, especially where a permeable layer overrides an impermeable surface. Block slumps are a type of translational slump in which one or more related block units move downslope as a relatively coherent mass. A rotational slump occurs when a slump block, composed of sediment or rock, slides along a concave-upward slip surface with rotation about an axis parallel to the slope. Rotational movement causes the original surface of the block to become less steep, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psiloceras
''Psiloceras'' is an extinct genus of ammonite. ''Psiloceras'' is among the earliest known Jurassic ammonites, and the appearance of the earliest ''Psiloceras'' species form the definition for the base of the Jurassic. Unlike most earlier ammonites, which had complex shell shapes and ornamentation, ''Psiloceras'' had a smooth shell. Taxonomy Almost all ammonites, with the sole exemption of a few members of the family Psiloceratidae, including ''Psiloceras'' were wiped out at the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event (201.3 million years ago). Most authors assume that ''Psiloceras'' descended from the Phyllocerataceae. ''P. spelae'' is probably the earliest species of ''Psiloceras''. Biostratigraphic significance The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) has assigned the First Appearance Datum of the ''Psiloceras spela''-group as the defining biological marker for the start of the Hettangian, 201.3 ± 0.2 million years ago, the earliest stage of the Jurassic, with the G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ammonite
Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) than they are to shelled nautiloids such as the living ''Nautilus'' species. The earliest ammonites appeared during the Devonian, with the last species vanishing during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Ammonites are excellent index fossils, and linking the rock layer in which a particular species or genus is found to specific geologic time periods is often possible. Their fossil shells usually take the form of planispirals, although some helically spiraled and nonspiraled forms (known as heteromorphs) have been found. The name "ammonite", from which the scientific term is derived, was inspired by the spiral shape of their fossilized shells, which somewhat resemble tightly coiled rams' horns. Pliny the Elder ( 79 AD near Pomp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mudstone
Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from '' shale'' by its lack of fissility (parallel layering).Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.'' New York, New York, W. H. Freeman, 2nd ed, 529 pp. The term ''mudstone'' is also used to describe carbonate rocks (limestone or dolomite) that are composed predominantly of carbonate mud. However, in most contexts, the term refers to siliciclastic mudstone, composed mostly of silicate minerals. The NASA Curiosity rover has found deposits of mudstone on Mars that contain organic substances such as propane, benzene and toluene. Definition There is not a single definition of mudstone that has gained general acceptance,Boggs 2006, p.143 though there is wide agreement that mudstones are fine-grained sedimentary rocks, composed mostly of silicate grains with a grain size less than . Individual grains this size are too small to be disting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ulster Museum
The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres (90,000 sq. ft.) of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasures from the Spanish Armada, local history, numismatics, industrial archaeology, botany, zoology and geology. It is the largest museum in Northern Ireland, and one of the components of National Museums Northern Ireland. History The Ulster Museum was founded as the Belfast Natural History Society in 1821 and began exhibiting in 1833. It has included an art gallery since 1890. Originally called the Belfast Municipal Museum and Art Gallery, in 1929, it moved to its present location in Stranmillis. The new building was designed by James Cumming Wynne. In 1962, courtesy of the Museum Act (Northern Ireland) 1961, it was renamed as the Ulster Museum and was formally recognised as a national museum. A major extension constructed by McLaughlin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
