Loughshinny is a tiny fishing-village on the coast of County Dublin, about midway between the larger villages of Rush and Skerries.
The area is well known to geologists from Dublin for the fine exposures of contorted strata exhibited in the neighbouring cliffs. These exposures form part of an extensive coast-section of Carboniferous rocks which may be followed, with a few interruptions, for about 8 kilometers from Rush on the south to Skerries on the north.
The geology of Loughshinny is remarkable in that it of layers of grey limestone and black shales formed about 300 million years ago.
The visible folding of the rocks happened later, about 290 million years ago.
This process resulted in chevron or zigzag folds the axial planes of the folds (anticlines and synclines) tilt to the south with overturned northern limbs, Some fossils, crinoids, bivalves and corals, can be seen in some of the beds.
All of which can be seen a short walk from Loughshinny Harbour.
The rocks that occur in County Dublin are all, with the exception of the latest Pleistocene glacial tills, of Paleozoic age having been formed between 590 and 350 million years ago during the Cambrian to Carboniferous periods.
Geological periods in the Paleozoic Era:
- Permian 248 – 286 million years
- Carboniferous 286 – 360 million years
- Devonian 360 – 408 million years
- Silurian 408 – 438 million years
- Ordovician 438 – 505 million years
- Cambrian 505 – 590 million years
To log your visit please answer the following questions:
- What is the name of the county that the Devonian period is named after?
- The Permian period was named after which kingdom?
- Who named the Permian period and when was it named?
- Estimate the length and height of the folds at the above coordinates.
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Please email me the answers to the questions asked. Logs that do not include all the answers will be deleted.
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The Windsockers
www.geocachingireland.ie