One winter evening sitting at home, I looked up to my framed poster of the Geology the British Isles. It was looking worse for ware. It had been sellotape into a cheap IKEA frame, with tack marks in all its crumpled corners. But this map has a special place in my heart, having been bought over 15 years ago when I started my Geology Undergraduate degree, and having travelled the World with me throughout my career. But now it needed replaced.
Then the idea hit me.
Rather than purchase a new poster... why don't I make my own?!
And so began my cross stitch journey of the British Isles.
Starting in the very north of the UK, I began to stitch the bedrock geology, learning and sharing as I went on my Twitter and Instagram pages. This month I am reflecting on some of the highlights of stitching Scotland over the last few months.
Lets start at the top of the country, and the top of my fieldtrip bucket list. Shetland is fantastically geologically diverse, with rocks that span from Precambrian to Devonian in age. The Mainland and Yell Isles are formed of metamorphic schists deformed during the Caledonian Orogeny (stitched in pink and purple). The Great Glen fault separates the metamorphics from granites (orange) and Devonian Old Red sandstones (brown) in the west. The most important geological outcrop in Shetland is found in the NE of the islands. The Islands of Unst and Feltar show the remnants of the Iaputus Ocean, now one of the most accessible and complete sequences of oceanic rocks from the mantle to the top of the oceanic crust (stitched green).
Sipping Speyside, and stitching Speyside. This corner of Scotland has the highest density of distilleries in the country due to quantity and quality of water. The granites and schists of the Scottish Highlands transfer rainwater down into the River Spey quickly without picking up minerals from the rocks. This means it is some of the freshest around. I can confirm it makes some pretty lovely whisky!
I cannot even handle how cute my wee Arran crossstitch is! It may be small, but it’s geology is MIGHTY. A large granite mass forms the highlands in the north of the island (red). The highland boundary fault separates Cambrian metamorphics in the north (green) from Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian sediments (orange) in the south. This is the setting for one of Hutton’s Unconformities where James Hutton started to develop our modern understanding of geological time! The geology is so great that the island is now a designated Geopark!
The Midland Valley of Scotland. I’m love the colours of the geological map across Central Scotland! This exhumed sedimentary basin is bounded by the Highland Boundary (HBF) and Southern Uplands faults (SUF). Devonian (brown) and Carboniferous (blue, grey, yellowy green) sediments dominate, but there are lots of volcanic rocks too (pink). They record a time when Central Scotland was a shallow sea with swampy deltas. Lots of volcanoes peppered the landscape and giant centipedes roamed the jungles. These forests formed the coals and oil shales that brought much industry to the region in the 1900s.
And finally, after many months of stitching, Scotland is DONE. I hope I have succeeded in sharing the geology of this superb country with everyone. Thanks for all the support on Twitter and Instagram to those who are following along!
A print of the map will be on show at the Geological Society of America AGM this September as part of the Pardee Symposium on "geoscience communication in the modern era" before being auctioned to raise money for the Eastern Section of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT). I am delighted that this art work is able to raise money towards furthering engagement in the geosciences.
Now only England, Ireland and Wales to go....
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