Morphos

Eugene Theron

Eugene Theron on ‘MORPHOS’:

Wales’s west is dramatic and craggy. Around 500–550 million years ago, the very beginnings of the coast and mountains we know in North Wales started to take shape. Two paleo-continents collided after slowly drifting towards each other for millions of years. The sea that separated them now gone and in it’s place a new landmass created. This period of geological history brought the onset of mass volcanism and deformation of the ancient continents.

The pressure and heat generated during this period heavily altered the strata and the mineral composition of these rocks. Over the subsequent millennia, the sea has further eroded the landscape into the what we observe today. The remnants of these metamorphic processes remain evident. In some areas, such as the cliffs of South Stack, these remnant structures can be seen on a macro scale, yet observing the marks of some subtle metamorphic process takes a bit more of a refined eye. These alterations in mineralogy are hiding amongst the massive cliffs and boulders on the beach.