Slate memorial
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Slate memorial by Jonathan Wilkins 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
Slate memorial
Image: © Jonathan Wilkins Taken: 19 May 2011
Worked stones often show features that are difficult to appreciate in natural outcrops. Here we are able to see the key feature which differentiates slates and flags. Flags split along their original bedding, while slates split along a new direction (the cleavage) that is imposed by mineral growth under tectonic stress, usually as a result of folding of the strata. This slate memorial has been cleaved and honed, but the cleavage cuts across the original bedding of these very fine-grained mudstones, so it displays all the subtle variation of grain-size, mineral content, de-watering structures and probably the efforts of bacteria munching away at organic content of detritus that rained gently down onto the floor of the Iapetus Ocean some 500 million years ago. Simply beautiful!
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Image Location
Latitude
53.275742
Longitude
-3.702389