Triassic times in Heysham EarthCache
Triassic times in Heysham
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A triassic sandstone outcrop at the Southern extremity of Heysham.
Heysham, Gateway to the Isle of Man - Looking out over Morecambe bay onto Middleton sands in the shadow of the menacing nearby nuclear power station.. at the Southern extremety of the Headland is a point formed of 'New Red Sandstone' rocks called "Red Nab"
but are they new stones?
New Red Sandstone isn't 'new', in fact it is far from it, it is simply the name for the thick red layer of the Triassic formation in Great Britain. It is many thousands of feet thick and is composed chiefly of red sandstones, clays, and conglomerate; the red color and the occurrence of workable quantities of salt and gypsum suggest markedly dry conditions at the time of deposition.
The stone is excellent for building with and last century was much in demand, infact the local church here was built from it as recently as 1900.
Nearby there was a cliff of Boulder Clay rather less than 100ft high, and 2 rocky points Far Naze and Near Naze of millstone grit now incorporated into the actual Harbour, These cliffs of Boulder Clay have been much eroded during the last 100years. There are large and small boulders scattered about on the beach, they are what is left after the Red marl has been washed away, The boulder clay here represents ridges of derritos or moraines left by glaciers during the Ice Age. Hence the contained boulder are round having been ground, the ridges themselves showing the direction of the glacier movement. The shifting of these materials has in turn revealed the 'new red sandstone' that can clearly be seen at Red Nab today.
Triassic period
The Triassic Period is divided into three epochs: the Early Triassic (251 to 245 million years ago), the Middle Triassic (about 245 to 228 million years ago), and the Late Triassic (about 228 to 199.6 million years ago. The rocks (mostly of sedimentary origin) that define these time intervals make up the Triassic System, which is broken down into three series: Lower, Middle, and Upper. Each of these series is further subdivided into stages, substages, and biozones, mainly on the basis of vertical ranges of rapidly evolving biota, radiometric dates, and magnetic reversals on the seafloor and in the sedimentary rocks, where available. Subdividing time and rock units in this way allows more precise dating of geologic events and correlation of rocks between areas, the dating of rocks can be a problem though because there are not sufficient igneous rocks for comparisson to provide reliable radiometric dates, so they tend to vary and get updated when new finds come to light.
The Triassic was named in 1834 by Friedrich Von Alberti from the three distinct layers (Latin trias meaning triad)— red beds (as in sandstone here), capped by chalk, followed by black shales—that are found throughout Northwest Europe, called the 'Trias'.
The area of new red sandstone here on the coast has been designated to be of regional geological importance
To claim this Earthcache please complete the following tasks:
1. Estimate the size of the Sandstone outcrop that is visible
2.Take a photograph of you or your GPS unit somewhere on the dense sandstone area here looking towards the sea.
3.Describe the texture of the red sandstone compared to another rock type found on the beach
4.What are the 7 key events in the Triassic?
PLEASE NOTE: I receive a very high number of Earthcache emails, I can’t reply to them all otherwise I’d be doing nothing else all day, as has always been the case there is no need to await a reply from me regarding your answers…. However due to numerous people thinking they can just log these caches without emailing any answers, and/or completing the required tasks these will be picked up, and the logs will be deleted without further communication. To facilitate this Please email your information either before, or AT THE SAME TIME OF LOGGING THE CACHE, Thanks.
Happy exploring !
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ybbx sbe gur erq ovg !