Figures in a mudscape

The second day of the Landscape Trust Study weekend.  I joined Peter Standing's group to walk along the shore from Arnside.  It's a familiar walk as Gus and I do at least some of it most evenings at this time of year, but it was a good opportunity to learn more about the rocks and landforms with which I am less familiar.

I learned the different limestone beds, we were shown fossil rich strata and outcrops of shale amongst the harder rocks, and I saw at this point something I have never noticed before.  In this photo you can see the beds dipping down towards the mud from right to left.  I will need to go back with the wide-angle because standing out here on the mudflats looking back at the land, there is what is known as a syncline, the beds bow down and up again over a length of about 500 metres.

The limestones are marine deposits and the beds would have been horizontal when they first formed 340 million years ago when Arnside was just south of the Equator.  But there have been major periods of mountain building since then as tectonic plates have collided, and the limestones were lifted, folded and faulted.  The syncline formed where the limestone beds were squeezed into a bow shape.

A good morning out.  I should have taken Gus as I have had to fit two walks in around the geological excursion, and he is looking at me now to take him out again this evening.

Thank you for the comments etc on yesterday's.  I shall try and catch up later when I come back from the Gus walk.