This beautiful pebble looks like a work of art with its white glassy matrix divided by almost geometric fractures and differential staining with red, yellow, and purple.
Patterned Pebble 1
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Category Archives: PEBBLES
Seatown Pebbles
Smooth pebbles, wet and vibrantly coloured, wave-washed and surf-splashed, on the waters’ edge on a bright sunny day at Seatown Beach in Dorset, England, along the World Heritage Jurassic Coast.
Click any picture to enlarge it and view all images in a gallery.
Gabions as Art & Architecture
At Whitstable Harbour gabions have been put to good use in the construction of a remarkable feature. Approaching the construction I could see an intriguing pale line across the darker pebbles, very reminiscent of the pale lines of empty oyster shells that I had just been seeing on the pebble beaches between the breakwaters. Closer inspection proved the pale line to be a symbolic tide line of man-made decorated ceramic pebbles. The feature is known as the Deck at Dead Man’s Corner and is supposed to resemble the bow of a ship, the wall a pebbly beach, and the vertical timber structures are made to the same specification as the groynes along the shore. The ‘tide line’ is a key feature of white ceramic pebbles set into the face of the wall. These were made by local people during a series of public workshops and classes held at the Community College Whitstable. The whole structure comprises seating and a stage built in 2011 for gatherings and events.
Natural Curiosities 1
A collection of natural objects displayed on my mantelpiece at the moment, along with a postcard of a watercolour painting The Pelicans by the artist Angela Gladwell (angelagladwell.co.uk).
Click once on the image to find out what the objects are.
Click twice or three times to see the details of the objects.
Studland Beach Finds
Some of the things that caught my eye as I walked along the beach at Studland in Dorset, England, included interesting beach stones; stranded clumps of red, green, and brown seaweeds; an empty shell of a clam just eaten by a bird; and tubes of Sand Mason Worms.
Seatown Beach Pebbles 1
Seashells & Shingle at Whitstable
The shingle shore at Whitstable in Kent is protected by massive wooden groynes or breakwaters. At the time of my visit, the tide was high and the flint and other mostly worm-holed pebbles were steeply banked. The flat top of the beach was stabilised by vegetation with pink and white valerian and yellow ragwort the most colourful flowers. Pale bands of white empty oyster shells (mostly the rock oyster Crassostrea gigas) were high, dry, and dull on the shingle between the groynes; while lower down splashed by waves or heaped up against the wooden sea defence structures was a great variety of other empty shells including winkles, cockles, mussels, limpets, slipper limpets, whelks, netted whelks, Manila clams, and sting winkles. These were jumbled up with wet and dry seaweed, horn wrack, small pieces of driftwood, and flotsam. There was a marked contrast in the appearance of the shells and stones between the water’s edge where the wet shells were brighter and more colourful and the upper shore where everything was dry.
Rocks & Pebbles near Twlc Point
Broughton Bay is a wide sandy expanse on the north shore of the Gower Peninsula in South Wales, facing the Loughor Estuary or Burry Inlet. A small promontory called Twlc Point at the western end of the beach has an interesting geology with an exposure of Hunts Bay Oolite from the Carboniferous Period. I have written about these strata in earlier posts such as:
Rocks on the west side of Broughton Bay Part 1
Rocks on the west side of Broughton Bay Part 2
Rocks on the west side of Broughton Bay Part 3
Brachiopod fossils in Hunts Bay Oolite at Broughton Bay
On this particular visit I was content to appreciate the way that pebbles of many types and colours on the upper shore were clustered around outcrops and boulders of the limestone which were often pink-tinged and sometimes fossiliferous.
Flints Embedded in Studland Chalk
Flint nodules embedded in the low cliff between two minor faults in Studland Chalk Formation exposures at South Beach on Studland Bay, Dorset, England. At the top of the cliff face is a layer of ironstone and iron-stained flints that has caused the rusty stain on the chalk below. Elsewhere the rocks are covered with a fine coating of green algae.
A couple of useful references for the geology of the area in which these photographs of the chalk and flints were taken:
Barton, CM, Woods, MA, Bristow, CR, Newell, AJ, Weathead, RK, Evans, DJ, Kirby, GA, Warrington, G, Riding, JB, Freshney, EC, Highley, DE, Lott, GK, Forster, A, and Gibson, A. 2011. Geology of south Dorset and south-east Devon and its World Heritage Coast. Special Memoir of the British Geological Survey. Sheets 328, 341/342, 342/343, and parts of 326/340, 327, 329 and 339 (England and Wales), 9–100.
Cope, JCW, 2012 Geology of the Dorset Coast, Geologists’ Association Guide No. 22, Guide Series Editor SB Marriott, The Geologists’ Association, 191-194. A serious guide for the more dedicated amateur and professional.
Ensom, P and Turnbull, M 2011 Geology of the Jurassic Coast, The Isle of Purbeck, Weymouth to Studland, published for the Jurassic Coast Trust by Coastal Publishing, ISBN 978-1-907701-00-9, pages 96-117. A beautifully illustrated beginner’s guide to the geology of the area – one of a series of excellent publications by the Jurassic Coast Trust.
Swanage Solid and Drift Geology (map), British Geological Survey (Natural Environment Research Council) 1:50,000 Series, England and wales Sheets 342 (East) and part of 343
Hill End to Spaniard Rocks & Back: Step-by-Step Part 7
Walking back from Spaniard Rocks now, I took a route closer to the dunes where the character of the shore is quite different from the wet sand and strandlines between high and low tide levels. Here there are pebbles. Rhossili’s pebbles intrigue me. I love scrambling over the banks of stones at the very top of the beach. The colours are lovely pastel shades with pinks and blues and overall reminding me of sugared almonds. A total delight. Many rock types are represented. Some have interesting patterns.
I like the way that the numbers of beach stones seem to increase or decrease depending on how they are pushed around the shore between one visit and the next, and how the sand changes its level and distribution throughout the year and the transition from season to season. This time the wooden ribs and keel of the shipwrecked ketch Anne were only just visible above the sand and pebbles. I like the way that pebbles are arranged partly buried in the damp sand that quickly dries to a different hue and texture. The pebbles underlie the tall sand dunes of the Llangennith Burrows. The dunes have been scooped out by stormy seas and footsteps in many places to demonstrate that even wind-blown sand is stratified; and marram grass roots exposed to air show how deep they penetrate the soft fine sediments to bind them together and stabilise the dunes.
