Three Scottish websites have been included in a brand new list of internationally vital geological locations.
The Parallel Roads of Glen Roy, the Rum Igneous Complex, and the Barrow Zones have been chosen for the International Union of Geological Sciences’ second list of 100 geological heritage websites.
As with the primary 100, these websites are deemed to be of excessive scientific worth and are the world’s greatest demonstrations of geological options and processes.
“They are the sites of fabulous discoveries of the Earth and its history,” NatureScot defined.
The Parallel Roads of Glen Roy may be discovered inside NatureScot’s Glen Roy National Nature Reserve.
It is house to a collection of glacial lake shorelines that knowledgeable the event of glacial principle within the Nineteenth century.
Three shorelines, or ‘parallel roads’, are proof that glaciers had been as soon as in an space the place none exist as we speak.
The Rum Cuillin. Pic: Lorne Gill/NatureScot
The Rum Igneous Complex is inside NatureScot’s Rum National Nature Reserve.
It is thought to be the “internal plumbing” of one of Scotland’s most lately lively (60-million-year-old) volcanoes by which chromium and the dear metallic platinum amassed in chambers of molten magma.
The Barrow Zones, within the Glen Esk space of the Scottish Highlands, is a sequence of rock layers that had been as soon as mud on an historical ocean flooring.
Layered gabbros and peridotites on the western slopes of the Rum Cuillin. Pic: Lorne Gill/NatureScot
NatureScot mentioned modifications within the mineral content material of rocks, up Glen Esk, exhibits that they skilled more and more larger pressures and temperatures, in a north-westerly route, “when plate tectonics brought the geological foundations of Scotland together around 470 million years ago”.
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Dr Christina Wood, a NatureScot geomorphologist, mentioned it was “fantastic” to see three Scottish websites making the list.
She added: “We’re particularly proud that both the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy and the Rum Igneous Complex are located on NatureScot’s national nature reserves.
“Glen Roy and neighbouring Glen Spean have stimulated geological debate from the early-Nineteenth century to the current day.
“Particular highlights are three shorelines, or parallel roads, visible along the flanks of Glen Roy at altitudes of 260m, 325m and 350m above sea level.
“The lakes that created the shorelines had been dammed by glaciers as they superior and retreated.
“The parallel roads provided convincing evidence for the former existence of glaciers in an area where none exist today, thus supporting [Louis] Agassiz’s theory of continental glaciation during a geologically recent Ice Age.”
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The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) revealed its second 100 list through the thirty seventh International Geological Congress in Busan, South Korea, on Tuesday.
Siccar Point within the Scottish Borders and Moine Thrust within the Highlands had been recognised within the first 100 list in 2022.
The third 100 list is predicted to be introduced in 2026.
Dr Wood added: “It’s vital we protect and conserve these special places for future generations to learn from and enjoy and we hope that many more people will continue to explore and experience the wonders of Scotland’s truly magnificent geological heritage.”
