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Some unusual graffiti painted on rocks near Kinghorn in Fife.
©Duncan Stephen
The smooth grey layers are limestones, and the lumpy reddish rocks are lava. The dark boulders are loose blocks of lava which have fallen from higher up as the rocks have been eroded over time.
©Anne Burgess
These lumpy rocks are pillow lavas. They were formed in the Carboniferous when this was an active volcanic area. Pillow lavas are formed when lava, usually basaltic, is erupted in shallow water.
©Anne Burgess
The smooth grey layers are limestones, and the lumpy reddish rocks are lava. The dark rock in the centre is a loose block of lava which has fallen from higher up as the rocks have been eroded over time.
©Anne Burgess
This is part of the outcrop of [[[2565834]]] which has been eroded down to intertidal level. The white lines are calcite which has precipitated in the cracks between the pillows.
©Anne Burgess
Dist:0.1km<br/>On the right are two lava flows. The lower one is barely visible at the foot of the cliff, which forms the upper one. Under the overhang is a layer of laterite. Laterite forms by weathering of soil in tropical climates, and is an important source of bauxite, the ore from which aluminium is extracted. This layer was formed in the Carboniferous when Scotland lay close to the Equator. It shows that there was a long interval of time between the two lava flows.
©Anne Burgess
Dist:0.1km<br/>Most of the boulders are loose lumps, probably from the layer of pillow lavas which outcrops nearby. They are resting on the Abden Limestone, one of several limestones laid down in a shallow sea while Scotland lay close to the Equator. The island is Inchkeith in [[NT2982]] and in the distance is Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, both of which are remnants of ancient volcanoes.
©Anne Burgess
Dist:0.1km<br/>The rounded rocks on the right are mostly volcanic, and the seaweed-covered spit is made up of sedimentary rocks lying on top of the lava and tilted by later tectonic movements. It points towards Arthur's Seat, the largest extinct volcano in Edinburgh on the far coast of the Firth of Forth.
©Anne Burgess
Dist:0.1km<br/>Beautiful wild blue geraniums flowering next to the Fife Coastal Path. The common name is derived from the shape of the seed case.
©Lis Burke
Dist:0.2km<br/>The dipping strata are Abden Limestone, which is fossiliferous. The lumpy surface is typical of limestone; I would be interested in a convincing explanation of why this should be so. In the background are the island of Inchkeith and Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, at the far side of the Firth of Forth.
©Anne Burgess
Dist:0.2km<br/>The ships are quite some distance offshore, in fact. In the centre of the view are two tankers which seem to be moored, and on the right is part of a new aircraft carrier, built in the Clyde and being towed up to Rosyth for assembly and fitting out in the naval dockyard. in the foreground is part of the Kiln Rocks.
©Anne Burgess
Dist:0.2km<br/>The hollow oval fragments are parts of the stems of crinoids or sea lilies. These creatures live exclusively in marine environments, so their presence proves that these rocks formed in the sea. The lens cap is 58mm in diameter, for scale.
©Anne Burgess
Dist:0.2km<br/>This outcrop tells the history of a change in the ancient sea level. At the bottom are fossils of 'Naiades', a type of bivalve found only in fresh water. Above it is a layer of swamp deposits, with a pale seatearth or fossil soil on top. Then there is a layer of shales laid down in brackish water, capped by layers bearing [[[2565977]]], an exclusively marine fossil, and a layer of limestone formed in a shallow sea. So the environment at this point changed from river, to swamp, to dry land, and then the sea began to encroach, finally submerging it completely.
©Anne Burgess
Dist:0.2km<br/>At the back of the beach is a low cliff of shaly material which yields fossil brachiopods and other molluscs. The foreshore are alternating strata of resistant limestones and easily eroded shales.
©Anne Burgess
Dist:0.2km<br/>This boulder is made up of fossil coral. It used to be termed Lithostrotion, but its name has now, apparently, been changed to Siphonodendron. It is a colonial coral and is fairly common along the shore here, both in situ and as loose boulders.
©Anne Burgess

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