21 June 2016

Porphyritic rhyolite dike seen on the beach at Cushendun

Posted by Callan Bentley

At the opposite end of the beach at Cushendun, Northern Ireland, we found some outcrops of schist – I’ll be featuring some of them as Friday folds later this week. But cutting across the schist was a pink porphyry, with big well-formed potassium feldspars. I splashed some water from the Irish Sea onto it to increase the contrast:

IMG_8648

Here’s a handheld GigaPan image, so you can explore it for yourself. Find a euhedral feldspar! Find a zoned feldspar! Find a beach fly!

Link GigaPan by Callan Bentley

Here is a shot showing the contact between the rhyolite (bottom) and the schist (top):

IMG_8764

You can probably tell that schist has a strong potential for featuring Friday folds. Indeed it does. Stay tuned!