#erratics

Landscape Language

Erratics (noun) – Boulders that have traveled far from their source

Erratics are found throughout Mount Rainier National Park. In geology, boulders that are located far from their origin and differ from the surrounding rocks are called erratics. They are moved by the powerful forces that have shaped the mountain, including eruptions, debris flows, and glaciers. An easy place to view some erratics is along the Nisqually Vista Trail at Paradise, where several large boulders stand among the meadow plants. These erratics were carried down to Paradise by a lahar about 6,000 years ago.

Grigory Razumovsky – Scientist of the Day

Count Grigory Kirillovich Razumovsky, a Ukrainian nobleman and geologist, was born Nov. 10, 1759.

There may not be any “major” attraction on Motion Path but hiking it during the summer months provides lots of smaller things to look out for. Lots of marsh berries like bake apples, an amazing view of the Cape Spear path along with the lighthouse when the weather is clear, the aerial view of the rolling hills, and not to mention the abundance of plant life that thrives in the marshes.

Definitely an underrated trail in my humble opinion.

Motion Path.

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Plate 1. [printed and crumpled; detail] The view of Shelburne Harbor and Sand Point taken from Fort Point... In the foreground is a glaciated ledge of staurolite schist whose bedding strikes toward Sand Point. The two erratics on the roche moutonnée are Shelburne granite. One has been almost quarried away — the usual fate of erratics in this country. link

ex Sidney Powers (Geological Museum, Cambridge, Mass.), “The Geology of a Portion of Shelburne Co., Southwestern Nova Scotia.” Read 16 February 1914. The Proceedings and Transactions of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science (Halifax, Nova Scotia). Vol. 13, Part 4, Session of 1913-1914. (Halifax, 1915) : 289-307 : link

Ohio may have glacial erratics that are cool; but, we don’t have enough super erratics that are just well. 

This folk belief might not actually be all that dismissive of the possible stoneworking skills of the ancients, if we bear in mind also one related fact.

Namely, erratics: giant unworked boulders (3×3×3 meters is not at all unusual) left behind by the Ice Age around the northern parts of Europe, hanging possibly tens of kilometers away from any rocky hills or outcroppings, and quite clearly not serving any discernible purpose. The usual folk explanation is them being due to giants who practiced stone-throwing or the like as a hobby: imaginative yes, but not all that far-fetched, considering how the real explanation is pretty staggering as well.