Joggins Rock Textures 1 – Fractured Carboniferous limestone rocks, belonging to the Joggins Formation of the Cumberland Group, at Joggins Fossil Cliffs on the Nova Scotia shore of the Bay of Fundy in Eastern Canada, showing the mouth of collapsed coal workings from which a deeply iron-stained stream is flowing.
8 Replies to “Joggins Rock Textures 1”
Very unusual rock formations – so interesting and I love the rusty iron stains… !
Thank you, Evelyn. the rock formations at Joggins are very interesting indeed, and rusty stains and seepages play an interesting part of that. The photographs in this series were taken on my second of three visits there. There is always something interesting and new to see because the cliffs are worn back by the sea every year revealing new surfaces and fossils.
Thank you for that link, Linda. Very interesting. I did not know much about acid mine drainage, although I did know that ancient buried peat decomposition gives rise to similar iron containing seepages. Several of my favourite rock texture photographs (to be posted later) from my second and third trips to Joggins Fossil Cliffs in 2016 include rusty seepages and stains, or include solid iron siderite nodules. Some of the plant fossils like Calamites stems have actually been replaced by siderite.
As far as I know, buried peat (which can yield bog iron, which you can read about at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog_iron) is not considered an environmental hazard. And neither are most other natural instances of bacteria-aggregated iron, such as that I find along Ohio’s Vermilion River. AMD (acid-mine drainage) is another beast because of the sheer quantity of precipitate in the water.
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Very unusual rock formations – so interesting and I love the rusty iron stains… !
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Wikipedia has a lot of information on Acid Mine Drainage, which is what your photo shows. Many links take you to even more information. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_mine_drainage
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Thank you, Evelyn. the rock formations at Joggins are very interesting indeed, and rusty stains and seepages play an interesting part of that. The photographs in this series were taken on my second of three visits there. There is always something interesting and new to see because the cliffs are worn back by the sea every year revealing new surfaces and fossils.
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Thank you for that link, Linda. Very interesting. I did not know much about acid mine drainage, although I did know that ancient buried peat decomposition gives rise to similar iron containing seepages. Several of my favourite rock texture photographs (to be posted later) from my second and third trips to Joggins Fossil Cliffs in 2016 include rusty seepages and stains, or include solid iron siderite nodules. Some of the plant fossils like Calamites stems have actually been replaced by siderite.
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As far as I know, buried peat (which can yield bog iron, which you can read about at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog_iron) is not considered an environmental hazard. And neither are most other natural instances of bacteria-aggregated iron, such as that I find along Ohio’s Vermilion River. AMD (acid-mine drainage) is another beast because of the sheer quantity of precipitate in the water.
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I hope you can show us Calamites stems replaced by siderite!
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Thank you, Linda. Your comments are very useful.
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I will be posting lots of images of Calamites fossils, and some where the fossil has been replaced by siderite, soon.
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