Metamorphic rock
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Metamorphic rock by Anne Burgess as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Metamorphic rock
Image: © Anne Burgess Taken: 27 Apr 2010
This is a wider view of the rocks shown in Image The islands of Seil, Luing and Easdale, and some of the smaller ones nearby, are known as the Slate Islands because they were formerly extensively quarried for slate. Slate is mudstone or siltstone which has been altered by heat and pressure. As the temperature and pressure increase, it first forms slate, then phyllite, then schist, and then gneiss, before melting altogether. The geological map describes the lithology of the islands as graphitic schist and slate, and these rocks are probably phyllite, because they have a definite sheen but no crystals obvious to the naked eye. The beach pebbles show almost translucent stripes.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
56.214491
Longitude
-5.659038