taken 17 years ago, near to Henwood, Cornwall, England
Stowe's Hill
When granite gets close to the surface it cracks in a rectangular pattern. These cracks get filled with water which starts the process of weathering both by chemical reactions and the effect of freezing and thawing, which would have been a major factor in the ice age. Over the course of time the granite is weathered away and the remaining granite blocks start the slow process of moving down the hillside along with the soil, another process which is helped along in cold periglacial conditions. Under the right conditions, where the granite is particularly hard and the cracks in the granite far apart large boulder stacks like these can be left standing on the hillside, the cores of granite blocks too large to be moved by natural processes. The stack on the right of the photo is the famous Cheesewring.
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