The Rift Valley! EarthCache
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A walk to the top of Kinnoull Hill, to view across the Tay Rift Valley
Kinnoull Hill is formed from a series of volcanic igneous rocks, mainly from flows of andesite lava. These had erupted about 410 million years ago (in the Devonian era) onto a landscape that was probably semi-arid and desert-like.
The lava flows may have been part of either a magnificent range of high volcanic cones or set in a more subdued landscape like modern Iceland. There was little vegetation at this time as land plants were only just evolving and starting to colonise damp niches in the landscape. At this time Scotland was located south of the equator on the southern fringes of the tropics.
Subsequent earth movements, about 380 million years ago, squeezed the local strata into a great arch with its axis running approximately along the line of the present River Tay valley.
Much later, around 300 million years ago, the direction of movement changed and the earth’s crust in this area was stretched. This created faults along the line of the fold and the centre part of the arch dropped to form a rift valley between what is now Tayside and north Fife. Because the rock strata on Kinnoull Hill are on the north-west side of the arch, they slant (dip) towards the north with a south facing scarp, whilst the corresponding strata in Fife slope towards the south with north facing scarps.
To log this Earthcache.
1. A photo of your gps with the stone table and the view to the south!
2. Email me the answers to the following. On the other side of the Rift on a bearing of 183 degs mag is Moredun Top! from your position is it higher or lower than you?
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)