Well - what would you expect a group of sensible, mature people, with an interest in things geological, to be doing on a blustery Easter Monday afternoon on Jersey? Wrong, they were out in the elements studying the geological features at Le Petit Portelet. This bay is situated on the eastern coast of Jersey below the northern side of Mount Orgueil Castle.
Due to the
tide just starting to fall only the upper portion of the bay was clear and any
curious observers from the road probably wondered what this group of amorphous
blobs were doing on a showery afternoon crunching their way slowly across the
pebbly beach, little did they know that three geological features were the magnet.
Fortunately the tide was out far enough for the objectives (diagrammatically
indicated left) to be reached safely.
After deliberating over the examples the group retraced their steps up the
cliff path to the parked cars. It was only a very short drive to the next cove
called Anne Port where the six car convoy was able to park easily, a bonus of
the inclement weather parking bays and beaches deserted or had our student reputation
gone ahead of us!! It seemed too good to be true a gentle stroll across a sandy
beach, where was the difficult terrain - oh there it was hidden just round the
corner. The beach was crossed in a northerly direction from the causeway to
reach an outcrop of rock from which the sea was receding to expose the following
geological features (see diagram pebbly beach).
1) Ignimbrite
Anne Port - streaked out crystals with zenoliths, a flow-banded rhyolite above
a coarse agglomerate base with an autobrecciated surface.
2)Columnar jointing with flow banding perpendicular to jointing.
It was difficult to walk /
scrabble over the slippery seaweed to reach the rocks and then to find the specific
feature amongst the fronds of seaweed. The columnar jointed rock was lying at
an angle, not at all like I imagined it to be after seeing pictures of the Giant's
Causeway. Hence it was very jagged and just as hazardous as the wet, seaweed
covered rock to flounder over, especially when trying to find the vesicular
surface portion and rubbly base to determine which way was up. After a lot of
scrabbling and sense of achievement on finding the indicative top segment it
was galling to have one's awkwardness accentuated by Tony's dog Bilbo's sure-footed
agility amongst the rocks, when he decided it was time to play 'chase sticks'
with a piece of driftwood.
After a very interesting afternoon exploring the two bays at Gorey it was now time for the sensible part of the afternoon, adjournment to the local hostelry. Au revoir Jersey.
Valerie Freeman