VI. An Account of some Geological Facts observed in the Faroe Islands

• Published in: Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
• Main Author: Mackenzie, George Steuart
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1815
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; General Environmental Science; Faroe Islands; Trap Rocks; Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s008045680001930x; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S008045680001930X

The singular appearances which were presented to my view by the Trap Rocks of Iceland, and the interest which they excited, made me resolve, as soon as I had given an account of that country to the public, to visit the Islands of Faroe. This expedition was undertaken, for the purpose of ascertaining, whether, in a Trap Country, where no traces of external volcanoes existed, any thing similar to the peculiar features of the rocks of Iceland was to be found. In the latter country were discovered a series of rocks, lying above the beds of Trap, which bore the most striking marks of igneous origin; in some instances having a perfect resemblance to ordinary Trap, and in others to the common Lavas of the country. The beds of Trap, and those above them, being separated by mechanical depositions of Tuffa (Trap-Tuff), led me to the conclusion, that the whole of the beds had been formed at the bottom of the sea, by successive eruptions of a submarine volcano.