Tung Ping Chau 2 (Rocks)

Tung Ping Chau is full of the kind of sedimentary rocks commonly called "shale", made up of a mix of clay flakes and tiny silt-sized fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite, characterized by breaks along thin parallel sheet-like layers less than one centimeter in thickness, called fissility. They are quite similar to mudstones which do not have fissility, whose layers are made up of particles smaller than 0.06 mm (1/3 to 2/3 silt particles) or claystone (less than 1/3 silt). Rocks with similar particle sizes but with less clay (greater
than 2/3 silt) and therefore grittier are siltstones. They are typically grey in color but if the materials contain iron, look a bit reddish. This is the type we find on the island. Usually, red, brown and green colors are indicative of ferric oxide (hematite – reds), iron hydroxide (goethite – browns and limonite – yellow), or micaceous minerals (chlorite, biotite and illite – greens). Shales are typically deposited in very slow moving water and are often found in lakes and lagoonal deposits, in river deltas, on floodplains and offshore from beach sands and may take millions of years to complete. If subjected to heat, they turn into slate and with continued increase in metamorphic grade, they turn into phyllite, then schist and finally to gneiss.

However they are formed, the owner of this restaurant knows well how to make use of some of the slate found on the island by painting them into patterns of blue, yellow, green, brown and pink.

and drew a smiley on the wall

and another smiley a little further on

There is a notice board at one of the sites where mudstones are found to let us know how they are formed.

This is one of the mudstones I found, with cracks upon its surface.

Some corals found amongst the broken down mudstones.

This is a famous tourist spot called " Dragon Entering Water" (龍落水)

some rocks found on the other side of the beach of Dragon Entering Water (龍落水)

A closer view of the carboniferous sedimentary rocks forming the ridge of the "dragon", with typical cracklines. The layers are clearly visible.

This is another famous landmark on the island, called "watch tower rocks" (更樓石) at the south-eastern tip of the island

Some rocks close to the sea at "Beheaded Spot" (斬頭/頸州)

A rocky beach



A closer view of the beach

Some cracks on the cliff.

This is the spot where there is a clear rift between the rocks on both sides of the "Beheaded Spot". (斬頭/頸州)

Some geological features close to the Beheaded Spot

Someone fishing at one of the rock outcrops

The tip of the island called "Cape Nipple" (奶頭嘴)

The rock formation there. Looks so like a miniature version of the Devil's Scrubbing Board ( 鬼之洗板) in Kyushu (九洲) in Japan

(To be cont'd)