Ardnamurchan Re-visited

[Eclogite]

The Tertiary volcanic centre on the Ardnamurchan peninsula in Western Scotland is a classic. In the early Holocene I had planned to do a Ph.D. on its petrology, provisionally titled "The Geochemistry of the Great Eucrite of the Ardnamurchan Ring Complex and its relationshhip to the Ardnamurchan volcanic centre, Tertiary vulcanicity in Scotland and the Origin of Basalts". But then life intervened and I wound up in another world.

 

But the following item caught my eye. The first link is to a lay summary, the second to the paper itself. Briefly, researchers in Sweden, using field data from the 1930s have concluded that the centre had only a single, elongate magma chamber, contrary to the long held - now classic - belief that it had three distinct eruptive centres, linked to three distinct chambers.

 

It provides an interesting example of how even a well researched area/topic can reveal new insights when current techniques are brought to bear on it.

 

(I realise this post has more of the character of a blog than a forum piece, but for reasons of nostalgia I felt compelled to speak. :))

[LaurieAG]

Interesting topic Eclogite.

 

I live on the edge of the Mount Warning caldera and we have columnar basalt in this area as well.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Warning

 

http://nrgeology.blogspot.com.au/search/label/fingal%20head

[Eclogite]

Since you live in the general area you might be interested in this background information on an excursion that was an adjunct to a 2012 geological conference. It is to the Toowoomba lava fields, rather than Mount Warning. I ran across it while seeking more info. on Mount Warning.

 

http://eprints.usq.edu.au/21962/1/Willey_34th_IGC_PV.pdf

 

 

[Turtle]

Saw a story today on a new mapping of the magma chamber under Mt. Rainier which is ~ 100 miles N. of me. (I'm about 50 miles from St, Helens, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Hood.) Anyway, I'll share the Mt. Rainier story and hope it's not too far off topic. :) (Unlike the Ardnamurchan volcano, Rainier is active.)

 

Experts map deep magma reservoir below Washington's Mt. Rainier

...

Researchers from the United States and Norway used seismic imaging and the measurement of variations in electrical and magnetic fields to create a detailed road map of the pathway molten rock takes to the surface.

...

The volcano's magma forms deep in the Earth's mantle, the layer between the planet's crust and its core. The magma, which is fluid molten rock, then flows upwards to a pool about five miles (8 km) below the peak, the study found.

 

The pool appears to be about 5 to 10 miles (8 km to 16 km) thick and the same width, the researchers said.

[LaurieAG]

Further north we have the Glasshouse Mountains, a line of volcanic plugs.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_House_Mountains_National_Park

 

As a child I can remember that we called Mt Tibrogargan 'King Kong' when ever we passed by.