Your favourite rock (geology, not sweets)

[UnderOpenSky]

Grimstone, even though my hands are scarred and my body aches. She's a harsh mistress.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Grimstone, even though my hands are scarred and my body aches. She's a harsh mistress.

Grimstone?

I'm a northerner, but never heard of that. Grimstone sounds proper northern!

Picture please.

 

[Fez909]

Here are some pictures of my favourite rocks.

Shap granite:

and the MIGHTY High Force:

Edit [found some better pictures of High Force in full spate]

The truly mighty Great Whin Sill. An igneous intrusion covering approximately 1,500 square miles of the North East of England.

These pictures are, in my view, the best place in Upper Teesdale. High Force - a truly superb place, and one I've spent many a happy hour at.

This is one of the places where the sill outcrops. The rock is so intensely hard that the River Tees has a hell of a job in eroding it. The result is that it thunders over the outcrop, and the roar of the waterfall is astonishing.

There's nowt better than dipping your feet in the freezing water on a summer day. It truly is a beautiful sight, in a lovely wooded valley - one of England's best waterfalls and one largely forgotten.

And more peaceful...

Are those first pictures really high force? I've never seen it split into two falls before! The Tees must have been heaving!

Amazing place, yes. Low Force too - vastly under-appreciated place. Best bit of Durham IMO.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Are those first pictures really high force? I've never seen it split into two falls before! The Tees must have been heaving!

Amazing place, yes. Low Force too - vastly under-appreciated place. Best bit of Durham IMO.

Tis indeed! I've been on the middle bit when it's pouring over both sides - rare, and generally only after huge rains and the need to vent Cow Green. Scary though, when you've got the river thundering down both ways at full tilt, and little you stuck in the middle.

There used to be a wooden bridge to the middle bit (since closed I gather, but I might be wrong). But I remember that we used to have to physically carry the dog across as he (sensibly) refused point blank to cross when the river was in spate. But it was worth it.

Wise dogs vs stoopid humans!

I love the swing bridge just downstream too near Low Force - many happy times deliberately scaring my sister by making it bounce like hell!

County Durham is wonderful. Full of marvellous countryside and coastal landscapes. I do miss it living out in the sticks here in Manchester. The Peak District offers some consolation though, especially the Edale Valley and the Mam Tor ridge walk.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I need to do this walk again, knees permitting. An excellent walk along the ridge - limestone on one side, gritstone on t'other

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Anyhoo...

Back to rocks.

Any nice rocks (or mineral-bearing rocks) anyone?

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Here's some vids from youtube on high and low force:







Wonders whether a 'what's the best waterfall?' thread is in order...

 

[Fez909]

Wonders whether a 'what's the best waterfall?' thread is in order...

You'd have to expand it to other countries to make it interesting. High Force is obviously the best in the UK

 

[farmerbarleymow]

You'd have to expand it to other countries to make it interesting. High Force is obviously the best in the UK

High Force is the best, full stop! Who gives a toss about other nations. Waterfalls in the UK are the best.

*says a landlubber*

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I think I've derailed own thread. Oops! Less loving High Force, and back to lovely rocks.

I've not seen a quartzite yet...

 

[stethoscope]

Intending to visit High Force in a few weeks

As for rock, then it's got to be spotted dolerite (aka Preseli)...

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Grimstone?

I'm a northerner, but never heard of that. Grimstone sounds proper northern!

Picture please.

That would be the autocorrect on my phone, I meant gritstone.

Grimstone does sound very cool though!

 

[ringo]

Sedimentary - flint

Igneous - obsidian. I have a load of obsidian arrow heads somewhere I bought from an Indian in Santa Fe I wonder where they are, haven't seen them for a while

 

[danny la rouge]

what is everyone's favourite rock?

Puddingstone.

 

[wayward bob]

another vote for flint here. reminds me of my childhood and favourite places and it's loads of fun to sitting around knapping the stuff, trying to turn out something that looks vaguely like an arrow head or scraper

 

[moose]

I do love the smell of flint.

 

[neonwilderness]

Are those first pictures really high force? I've never seen it split into two falls before! The Tees must have been heaving!

I think the flow is regulated by Cow Green reservoir, so it doesn't happen as much these days.

A nice bit of limestone at Malham (complete with geology bore )

 

[UnderOpenSky]

A nice bit of limestone at Malham (complete with geology bore )

It's not just geology types who like Malham

 

[coley]

Here are some pictures of my favourite rocks.

Shap granite:

and the MIGHTY High Force:

Edit [found some better pictures of High Force in full spate]

The truly mighty Great Whin Sill. An igneous intrusion covering approximately 1,500 square miles of the North East of England.

These pictures are, in my view, the best place in Upper Teesdale. High Force - a truly superb place, and one I've spent many a happy hour at.

This is one of the places where the sill outcrops. The rock is so intensely hard that the River Tees has a hell of a job in eroding it. The result is that it thunders over the outcrop, and the roar of the waterfall is astonishing.

There's nowt better than dipping your feet in the freezing water on a summer day. It truly is a beautiful sight, in a lovely wooded valley - one of England's best waterfalls and one largely forgotten.

And more peaceful...

Not so great when you are mining through it, bliddy hard.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Hello

I was talking to someone about rocks, and wondered - what is everyone's favourite rock?

Not sweet rock like http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/best-rock.273473/

Rocks are great, and make good pets and house decorations. Don't need walking, and the only downside is that they gather dust. But you can talk to them.

So suggest you favourite rock, with pictures if you like. [should this be in the science bit?]

Mine is, apart from my lumps of nice gneiss, Shap granite or lumps of the Great Whin Sill. But I love all sorts of rocks, including an ironstone one I found on a beach. It smells really metallic which is lovely.

Excuse the pun, but geology rocks!

Hmmm - should I add a poll?

I quite like the soapstones and serpentine because they're soft enough to carve easily, but I'm quite partial to obsidian, chert/flint or any of the cryptocrystalline silicates and quartzites - anything that can be knapped to make tools, basically.

 

[Firky]

The humble desert rose is one of my favourites.

 

[Corax]

Gabro makes for some great mountains:

Gabro rips your fingers to shreds though.

On the plus side, grippy.

 

[Corax]

I love a bit of igneous generally, but I'm a late convert to Karst landscapes too.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

cryptocrystalline

Also phanerocrystalline - one of my favourite words.

 

[coley]

NZ greenstone, semi precious but with a beautiful translucence quality, otherwise under me feet as opposed to ower me Heid

 

[2hats]

Two favourite rocks I've held:

Carbonaceous chondrites - the inclusions are dated to some 4.567 billion years ago - the oldest known solids in the solar system.

And:

the green-gold Martian Tissint meteorite which was most likely knocked off the surface of Mars by some impact around 700000 years ago.

Earth bound, I'm rather partial to the pinkish hues of some western Cornish granites. Great for climbing on too.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Two favourite rocks I've held:

Carbonaceous chondrites - the inclusions are dated to some 4.567 billion years ago - the oldest known solids in the solar system.

And:

the green-gold Martian Tissint meteorite which was most likely knocked off the surface of Mars by some impact around 700000 years ago.

Earth bound, I'm rather partial to the pinkish hues of some western Cornish granites. Great for climbing on too.

I'm very jealous - would love to have both of those rocks.

 

[2hats]

OK. Not technically a rock as such but the Sunday Stone has always amused/fascinated me.

a fragment of a remarkable calcareous deposit; it was taken from the pipe which carries off the drain water from a certain colliery in the north of England, and consists of carbonate of lime deposited on the sides of the pipe. The stone is not of one uniform colour; but is striped with alternate layers of black and white, yet both equally carbonate of lime. This has come about in the following way ...

 

[Firky]

Whin Sill stretches right across the country and helped reinforce Hadrian's Wall. Here i starts (or ends) it's journey on the coast:

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I love the story of the Sunday Stone. I've never heard of that one. A nice story about mankind leaving their own version of sort-of tree rings!

Reminds me of seeing black beaches on the NE coast years ago due to the enormous amount of coal waste that was tipped into the sea over the years when the collieries were in their heyday. You used to see people with wheelbarrows and the like on the beach collecting it - free fuel so why not, and a welcome bonus if you're skint, as many in the area where at the time.