Boring?

Definitely not!

It was the first day of the Arnside & Silverdale AONB Landscape Trust study weekend.  The theme this year is rocks, landforms and soils of the AONB.  Here we are at Haweswater examining a core through the sediments, the core is about 6-7 metres long.  Furthest from the camera is sediment from the bottom of the once much more extensive tarn, laid down about 14000 years ago.  At the top, the browner more peaty material, is perhaps 3-4000 years old.  The very top sequence is missing, it was peat that has been stripped for fuel in more recent centuries.

The core in between the two ends preserves a record in pollen grains, midge exoskeletons, and radioactive isotopes of oxygen of climatic changes, including rapid fluctuations between cold and warm spells up to 8000 years ago.

The man with the walking pole at the far end is a distinguished academic, Professor Frank Oldfield, who first started working on the site in 1956 and has been involved with research here ever since.

And I chose this photograph because the head of my fellow Arnside blipper knottman2 is visible on the left hand side, just leaning in for a better look.

Another excellent event organised by the irrepressible Peter Standing.  There is always so much more to know about this area.