dwarrowdelf
11 years ago
I recently found a rock in the area above Cwmorthin where it looked as if untopping activity had been going on.

It is a light whitish grey with straight dark and lighter fine grey lines running through it.

Sorry I haven't got a photo of it yet but was wondering if given the location where I found it, someone could hazard a guess.
'I wonder how many breakfasts, and other meals we have missed inside that nasty clockless, timeless hole?'

'The Hobbit'
J R R Tolkien.
John Mason
11 years ago
I think you are describing the acidic tuff-turbidite bands that crop out at the opencast workings up at the top there - stripey rocks a bit like liquorice allsorts. They are of considerable geological interest because they have undergone brittle deformation in the slate-forming event - the muds were squished into slate but these rocks cracked. The fissures were mineralised at the time - and some of the minerals present offer potential for U-Pb isotopic dating, which has interesting scientific possibilities. Similar bands are present in the modern Cwt y Bugail quarry and both are broadly correlated with the Rhiw-bach Volcanics.
dwarrowdelf
11 years ago
Many thanks, John for the reply. Really interesting!!
I was thinking along the lines of some kind of chert, but never noticed anything like this specimen underground anywhere in Cwm. However, i've only explored from lake level downwards Was wondering if these different kind of rocks will begin to be encountered in the underground workings as one goes higher or would only begin to emerge in quantity with wholesale untopping of the mountain.
'I wonder how many breakfasts, and other meals we have missed inside that nasty clockless, timeless hole?'

'The Hobbit'
J R R Tolkien.

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