Aran Island, Ireland

First of all I wish I could have done my field trip experierence somewhere here in Colorado but do to the fact that I broke my camera during my trip to Ireland I won't have the opportunity. Still, my trip there was pretty fantastic and since it was associated with a geography crew from UCCS it was pretty spectacular and I was able to see many things you don't normally see tooling around by yourself! Anyway, I hope you enjoy. Here's the highlight of some of the geology in the Aran Island off the west coast of Ireland.

Location:

The Aran Islands are located off of the west coast of Irleand. It consists of three Island: Inis Oirr (small island), Inis Meain (Middle Island), and Inis Mor (Big Island). I was located on Inis Mor.

The primary rock types on the Aran Island are carboniferous limestone, iron pyrite, shale, and dolomite. The islands formed from a dip slope facing southwest, scarping north-east to Galway Bay (on mainland Ireland). There are a number of geologic evidence from the pattern of erosion that the islands were once part of the Burren.

The sea cliffs on Inis Mor were formed because the rock on the bottom is softer than the rock on top. These rocks are undercut by the ocean at the cliff base. Over time the tops colapse in to the sea. Most of the weathering you will find on the island is weathering from the ocean. One of the major cliffs on the island is Dun Aonghasa (which is the picture above) This picture is actually the cliffs at Dun Duchathair or in english would be "Black Fort".

This is an example of a Puffing Hole, there are a number of them on the island. How they are formed is that erosion undercuts the rock. A section of limestone will fall out in square section into the ocean. During high tide water will rise through the hole.

This photo is of the Worm Hole. It forms the same way as a Puffing Hole however it's lower to the sea. This give you a better view of what a puffing hole is.

As you can see in this picture there's not a tree on the island! There's not alot of soil on the island except what they make. When people first arrived on the Islands they used the loose rock slab (which is everywhere) to build thier forts, churches, and homes. This material was also useful on the island for creating soil. Islanders mix the broken stone with seaweed. This breaks down and makes a great soil for growing crops and grasses to feed their cows, sheep, etc. The people from the Island were very little affected by the potato famine because of this. They were very resourceful and able to create their own food through this method.