10 September 2016
Peat slide!
Posted by Callan Bentley
This is pretty wild: a peat slide in mainland Shetland:
One of the insights I had while travelling in Shetland this past summer was that peat doesn’t only grow in low-lying waterlogged bogs. It can also drape the landscape, as a blanket does a slumbering person. Over time, this skin of peaty vegetation and organic concentrate thickens. Local people of course will cut it and dry the bricks (called “peats”) for fuel. But if it gets really waterlogged, during a heavy rain, it can slough off and run downhill, exposing the bedrock beneath. That’s what happened here.
It’s a novel form of mass movement to my limited experience. I thought you might be keen to see it.
Callan Bentley is Associate Professor of Geology at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. For his work on this blog, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers recognized him with the James Shea Award. He has also won the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia, and the Biggs Award for Excellence in Geoscience Teaching from the Geoscience Education Division of the Geological Society of America. In previous years, Callan served as a contributing editor at EARTH magazine, President of the Geological Society of Washington and President the Geo2YC division of NAGT.