Ian wrote:
More seriously, apart from the names of rocks from XYZ millions of years ago, I do think I have my head around it.
Ian
From a geological perspective, the mudstone/siltstone would have been deposited in a shallow shelf sea as fine mud layers, perhaps in an estuary, although they may be more open sea sediments.
The microgabbro is an intrusive rock that has formed during the closure of the Iapetus ocean. The closure of Iapetus is when Scotland (Part of Baltica then) first joined with the rest of Britain (Avalonia). As the ocean closed, subduction occurred on both sides and so caused volcanism to the south and north of the final "suture zone" which is in southern Scotland. A lot of volcanics occurred in North Wales, Lake district, and around the Midland Valley in Scotland as a result of these subduction zones and these intrusions, which were originally of basaltic composition will have assimilated some continental rock as they stope up to wards the surface and so changed their chemistry to less basaltic compositions. The microdiorite will have solidified at depth and is not much changed from basaltic, but the rhyolite is a very different igneous rock that was placed on the surface as lava...
It would have been very exciting times back then with volcanic islands and a shallow sea.
The tuff is the result of ash, from the volcanic eruptions and is another part of the story.
Once the Iapetus ocean closed the collision resulted in uplift which exposed all these rocks to erosion and subsequently the next 400 million years has allowed even the deep deposited microgabbro to be exposed on the surface.
Although I don't have the luxury of a few hand samples, I am assuming the microgabbro will be a dense crystalline rock that will not allow much groundwater to flow and the lava (rhyolite) will be similar, having solidified much quicker with very small crystal growth.
These rock types would not permit water to seep away and will hold it on the surface, within the soil.
Volcanic Tuff is generally quite porous, so ground water would be able to flow through it, but the tuff there is quite old (400mya) so may have become crystallised due to the close contact with other igneous rocks, but, as I said, not having the luxury of a hand sample...
The tuff,is further away down the valley anyway so will probably not have contributed to this event...
The BGS website is a really useful resource with all the regional memoirs, and sheet memoirs, and a comprehensive geological map, all containing masses of information, and all freely available on 'tinternet...
www.bgs.ac.uk/
I do recommend it