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Subterranean Penetration by a Desert Climate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

E. B. Bailey
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Extract

The subject matter of the present note is furnished by the abnormal redness of many parts of the Arran Carboniferous. W. Gunn, in his invaluable memoir, records this colouration without particular comment; but, as Scottish geologists are aware, B. N. Peach, under whose supervision Gunn carried out his survey, has long claimed that the Arran Carboniferous is stained by solutions that have percolated down from overlying New Red Sandstone. After a careful consideration of the exposures, I feel convinced that two features of Peach's proposition are secure:—

(1) The red colour of much of the Arran Carboniferous is not original.

(2) It must be in some way connected with the New Red Sandstone.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 63 , Issue 6 , June 1926 , pp. 276 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1926

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References

page 276 note 1 Gunn, W., “The Geology of North Arran, etc.”: Mem. Geol. Surv., 1903.Google Scholar

page 276 note 2 As so often, Peach's important deduction has remained practically unpublished. It introduced me to the problem, and in large measure provided a solution. If I have been able to improve upon it in any degree, it is because of the ample opportunity provided by a month's holiday at Corrie, where the evidence is most conveniently displayed. The general prevalence of red staining among British Carboniferous rocks was a favourite subject with Goodchild, J. G., “Desert Conditions in Britain”: Trans. Geol. Soc. Glasgow, vol. xi, 1898, p. 93. He attributed it to percolation of solutions, from lakes of New Red Sandstone age, see “Desert Conditions in Britain”: Trans. Gaol. Soc. Edinburgh, vol. vii 1899, p. 214.Google Scholar

page 277 note 1 A serious difficulty is furnished by the absence of deep-seated oxidation in the Egyptian Sahara. W. F. Hume in his “Geology of Egypt,” Mem. Surv. Egypt. vol. i, 1918, p. 152, accepts W. B. Pollard's proof that many Egyptian rocks retain ferrous compounds, which on oxidation give rise to a strictly superficial desert film. The difference is probably connected with the fact that the Egyptian portion of the Sahara is not a red desert at all comparable with that which occupied the British area in New Red Sandstone times. To obtain help in this matter, I sent my manuscript to my friend G. W. Grabham. His communication, p. 280, makes it clear that the New Red Sandstone type of desert is not realized in the Sudan, although, perhaps, it is more nearly approached there than at Cairo.Google Scholar

page 279 note 1 J. W. Gregory seems to have first described the dune-bedding and wind rounded grains of the lower part of the New Red Sandstone of Arran. “The Permian and Triassic Rocks of Arran”: Trans. Geol. Soc. Glasgow, vol. xv, 1914, p. 183.Google Scholar