taken 11 years ago, 3 km from Hillside, Mainland, Orkney Islands, Scotland
Weird Rock
A natural feature.... if this were volcanic I'd think of gas bubbles but this is sandstone. Sometimes limpets can cut vertically downwards into stone... but not to this extent. Is it just the product of differential denudation... harder bands eroding more slowly than softer sections?
Thanks to Anne Burgess for the following:
It's differential weathering. This happens when the sand grains are partly cemented by calcium carbonate. The CaCO2 is soluble in water, and therefore erodes more readily, leaving sinuous ridges where the cement was less calcareous. See other examples in search
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