The Moor In Winter

I was originally going to call this one The Ice Age, but the weather somewhat spiked my guns..



So, long long ago I wandered up onto t'Moor, because I'd not been for an age due to weather and other things, and because while it was a bit blowy I figured it would be dry and maybe even solid underfoot, and because, well, I just had had enough of finding reasons not to.

Reckoning that the sheltered side of the Moor would be less blasted than the exposed side [which seems to make sense, and makes me wonder how bad it was over there], I headed west and pulled into the nice SWW works [the one they haven't shut off to deny the ordinary public access to that area of the Moor].

At once I became aware of a slight issue; I had trouble getting my car door open.. Yes, the wind was blowing that hard. Despite all the sunshine, it was screaming down off the tops and of course it wasn't exactly warm to begin with..

Despite an ambient temperature of 2°, the windchill made my description of 'Antarctic' not entirely hyperbolous. Most people, certainly sane even sensible people, would have said something along the lines of 'WORDOFCHOICE this' and done something else with the day. But not this little black duck.

The very least I was taking was getting up Sourton Tor, so I fought my kit on, passed a shouted - yes the wind was that strong - time of day with a glad-to-be-going dog walker, and off up the slope I toddled.

It was nice and solid underfoot - Prewley Moor can be tricksier than you expect for a little slope mire - and apart from the wind and the ice it was very nice indeed. Just minor details, right?

Looking up towards Sourton Tor

Isn't it glorious? Look at that sky..

The glacier advances

Ok, ok, 'tis wind-frozen runoff

I made it. Then I very nearly went back the quick way, as it was even hoolier up on the edge.. Not to be stopped, I eventually braced myself almost double over my planted stick, and with one hand holding my hat on, hit the inevitable summit shot;

Wow.

After taking a very careful trip to slightly less windy bits [there was no calm, the wind was too gusty and clearly had malicious intent.], I decided I was not to be defeated, and after jamming another hat on - which just about held up - I forced my way up into the wind and onwards. Yes, it was forced; I'd only the one stick with me and for once really wished I had two. But anyways; the track to the southward ways was as frozen up as I'd expected. No pictures of tragic ex-spawn, so here are some other icy things;

Iced pebbles

Stomp stomp stomp slide stomp stomp slide stomp stomp stomp etc.

Great Links Tor

Looming even in sunshine

Taking the scenic route, I couldn't resist defying the wind to take the odd shot on the way [shock]

Bleak House looking almost cheery

[Cut Hill and Fur Tor on the horizon]

Looking south from Dunna Goats

Lower from Higher 

with the Central Massif in the distance

Great Links

Look at that sky

Finding a spot 'out' of the wind wasn't easy. Eventually I plonked down and naturally had a lookit about

Look South

West

North!

It looked better there, I admit. Anyways, I had no sooner taken these - and indeed a very welcome sip of the hot stuff - when I swear I heard the wind cackle as it shifted..

A little more sheltered

Also with some interesting natural art

Ice crystal in hoar frost

Like glass

Onwards onwards I headed down and away from the bitter heights, finding some shelter and quite a few Fieldfares in the Lyd valley as I looped back north.

Looking out from Arms Tor

See? Fieldfare

Someone's had too much time

on their hands

Hut circle

Stone row

Looking back down the Lyd

- Arms Tor and Great Nodden

Sourton Tor again

Now only in an icy blast - balmy in comparison, I can tell you!
A more pleasant coffee break and the opportunity to have a little look at what I was sat next to.. Oh yes, you knew it was coming - after scenery, birds, and archaeology, it's got to be rocks! Mua-ha-ha-ha-haa....

As anyone into rocks will tell you, there is nothing as horrible as a volcano. No, not an active one - cool epitomised - or the stuff they drop all over the place, but the insides. When you erode an extinct volcano down, you get all the insides. These are not the nice neat layers you may imagine, an igneous tiramisu if you will, oh no, but an horrific jumble of all manner of mostly grey stuff, run through with all manner of fluids from hot water to magma, altered thermally and chemically, faulted, veined, collapsed, blown up and dropped back, re-baked, over and over again.... 

Then take a random erosive cut through all that. Or just look at a geological map of say Mull..

Perhaps the worst of the worst is that dreaded catch-all 'vent agglomerate'; the stuff that falls back and clogs up the hole in the middle when a volcano finishes for the last time.

Guess what Sourton Tor is made of?

:)

Interesting clast

[the pale fang-shaped bit]

A closer view.

I think this is a bit of limestone*

But as I didn't have my lens and wasn't going to damage outcrop [never do that], I can't be sure. Limestone? In a volcano? It would be what's known as country rock, ie. pre-existing and ripped up by the force of an eruption. It's been heated and shows some nice mineral leaching [quite possibly from the Dartmoor granite, rather than the original emplacement]

Another one

[the dark bit on the left]

 

Closer to

This is either a little bit of lava or welded tuff** - and you'd need to a microscope to tell which. Again, clearly not formed where it ended up!
Ah, the joys of agglomerate..

That's all, you can stop scrolling now.

A little heritage

[with the A30 behind it..!]

Despite the blast, it was a lot of fun.


Really.



Really really.


Ok, it was fun once I'd warmed up and everything stopped hurting. Happy?


Thank you.



Be Seeing You..


[[*It miiiight be tuff - solidified ash - but I don't think so. For one thing, the lack of quartz in the veining coming off it implies it's not silicic]]
[[**When say a pyroclastic flow is so hot, the deposited ash melts [ie welds] into what is not actually lava but looks a lot like it]]