Burntisland to Kinghorn Coast
Geological Conservation Review site | GCR #1154 | Igneous Petrology | Carboniferous - Permian Igneous
Scotland's geosites are chosen because of their local, national or international importance. Take only photos, leave only footprints: avoid causing any damage to this site. You can walk almost anywhere in Scotland without the need to ask permission or keep to paths, but you have a responsibility to care for your own safety, to respect people's privacy and peace of mind and to cause no damage.
This site is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). It is an offence to intentionally or recklessly damage the protected natural features of a SSSI, and this includes unauthorised sample collection.
The right of access does not extend to quarries, building sites or any land where public access is prohibited, or to the collection of geological samples.
Summary
Recent research has indicated the possibility that, taken as a single unit, the Permo-Carboniferous volcanic rocks and associated intrusive suites throughout central and southern Scotland show evidence of a systematic change in chemistry with time which can be closely related to the progressive depletion of the mantle sources from which they were derived and to the changing tectonic situation of the region. Further research on this topic requires repeated access to representative selections of the various volcanic suites throughout the Carboniferous and early Permian and its results can be expected to be of considerable significance both nationally and internationally as an aid to our understanding of the complex development of northern Britain during Permo-Carboniferous times. The Burntisland-Kinghorn site on the Fife coast exposes a good sequence of almost entirely Middle and Upper Dinantian lavas, subordinate tuffs and interstratified sediments. In terms of compostional variation the lavas have a somewhat restricted range of chemistries and are mostly olivine and clinopyroxene microporphyritic basalts. The association with these lavas of tuffs, breccias (including ?pillow-breccias), minor vents and a teschenite sill, confer on the site educational as well as research potential.
Related geosites
There are no photographs yet