Agassiz's Rock

Category

Library Item

Item no

27052

Title

Agassiz's Rock

Description

Agassiz Rock Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is a nationally important
scientific and historical site, located beside the disused Blackford Hill quarry within Hermitage of Braid and Blackford Hill Local Nature Reserve.

Artist / maker

MacLean, Kevin

Date

2012

Agassiz Rock Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is a nationally important
scientific and historical site, located beside the disused Blackford Hill quarry within Hermitage of Braid and Blackford Hill Local Nature Reserve.

Agassiz rock is a volcanic rock, the surface of which forms an overhang that is smooth and contains grooves known as striations. The grooves and smooth surfaces have formed as a consequence of ice rubbing against the rock surface.

The rock was interpreted by the Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz, in 1840, as having been eroded by glacial ice. This interpretation is of historic importance as it led to the development of glacial theory in Scotland and the interpretation that much of Scotland’s present landscape was formed by glacial erosion.

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Related subjects

Landscape > Land > Rocks

Places > Edinburgh areas > Blackford

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

Plants > Trees > Trees