This is what happens sometimes when a gorse bush manages to insinuate its roots into a fracture in a boulder of volcanic ash. (Photo from Gernos-fawr, not far from Gelli-fawr. Cwm Gwaun)
The root system has expanded and has busted the rock apart. This is what is happening all over the rocky crag at Rhosyfelin. Gorse is of course far more effective at quarrying than Neolithic man ever was......
Oh dear I thought pastoral romanticism went out in the late 19th century.
ReplyDeleteBrian be an Angel and don't mix your romantic fictions with science.
We will be up to our eyes in Ents next.
Still it has me humming Sheath and Knife.
M
PASTORAL ROMANTICISM??!! This is pure science, Myris. No romanticism anywhere in sight. Roots expand in cracks and force rocks apart. Is that a problem?
ReplyDeleteNo it is the pitting of man against nature in the guise of a mighty broom.
ReplyDeleteSheer Fantasia. Bom de bom, de bomdidibom etc.
The only time I have seen quarrying by broom was at Temple Newsom opencast coal mine 30 years ago.
M