In common with much of the Northwest Highlands, the underlying rocks of the area are composed of Lewisian gneiss, a very ancient rock type. The younger Precambrian Torridonian Sandstone, which sits on top of the gneiss, forms the bulk of all of the Torridon Hills, including Beinn Eighe, and was formed around 800 million years ago from the sediment of rivers that flowed across the landscape of the gneiss. Beinn Eighe is however unusual amongst the Torridon Hills in that the summit ridge is composed of white-coloured Cambrian basal quartzite. This is a very hard but brittle rock, that was laid down around 540 million years ago as pure white sands during a period when the area was flooded by warm tropical seas.
No comments:
Post a Comment