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6. Geology and Petrology of St Abb's Head

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2014

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Extract

The observations recorded in this paper have reference chiefly to the coast-sections at St Abb's Head and Coldingham Shore. The district was geologically surveyed some twenty-five years ago by my brother, Dr A. Geikie, and subsequently described by him in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey. Since the publication of that memoir, no further examination of the ground in question appears to have been made. During the past summer I visited the neighbourhood, principally for the purpose of studying the igneous rocks which are so well exposed in sea-coast sections. At the date of the Government Survey of Eastern Berwickshire the aid of the microscope had not yet been invoked by field-geologists for the purpose of determining rock-species, and I was therefore curious to compare the igneous rocks of that region with those of similar age which I had studied elsewhere in Scotland, and more especially with the bedded and intrusive porphyrites and tuffs of the Cheviot Hills and the Sidlaws.

Type
Proceedings 1886-87
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1888

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References

note * page 177 Geological Survey Memoirs: The Geology of East Berwickshir.

note * page 188 At Bell Hill the conglomerate is traversed by a dyke of mica-trap or minette. This rock shows under the microscope a micro-crystalline ground-mass full of felspar microliths and black magnetite dust. Scattered abundantly through this ground-mass are small scales and larger crystals of biotite, many of which are broken and twisted, and contain inclusions of the ground-mass. Orthoclase appears sparingly, and a few irregular crystalline granules of quartz are present. Magnetite is very plentiful.

note * page 177 A dyke of basalt-rook crosses the intrusive porphyrites at the harbour, Coldingham Shore. Unfortunately, I neglected to bring away a specimen of the rock for closer examination. But I hope soon to revisit the district for further study, and to supply the omission in a subsequent paper to the Society.