GEOLOGY, 



c. H. OSTENFELD. 



Tertiary rocks of the Islands. Viewed in the light of geo- 

 logy ^ the Færoes are not of great antiquity ; the rocks of which 

 the Islands are composed belong to the Tertiary formation and are 

 mostly of igneons origin. They do not show much variety only 

 basalts being found in large beds intercalated with thin layers 

 of tuff (Fig. 14). The beds are nearly horizontal, usualh% however, 

 with an inclination of 2*^ to 5*^ wdiich on Myggenæs even rises 

 to 10*^. The dip of the strata varies somewhat on the different 

 islands; in the southern part the direction is N. N. E., in the 

 western part, due E., and in the northern part, S. E., thus forming 

 part of a periphery the centre of which lies to the east of the islands. 

 The most ancient of the islands are Sydero and Myggenæs, the coal- 

 bearing strata which occur liere are not found on the other islands, or 

 if they are to be found at all, they must be sought for below sea-level. 

 These coal-bearing strata are interbedded w ith basalt which belong to 

 a somewhat different class of rocks from the other basalts. Geikie and 

 Helland give it as anamesite; it is a close, grey-black, fme-grained 

 cryptocrystalline rock. The greater part of the cliffs on Sydero consist 

 of these anamesite-beds which in the south extend quite to the top of 

 the mountains, while from about the middle of the island (from the 



^ In working up this subject the following books have been consulted: 



G. Forchhammer: »Om Færoernes geognostiske Beskaffenhed«. Kongl. Danske 

 Vidensk. Selsk. Skrifter. 1824. 



Amiind Hellaml: 2 Om Færøernes Geologi«. Geografisli Tidsskrift, vol. IV. 1880. 

 Kbhvn. 



James Geikie: On the Geology of the Faroe Islands. Transact. of the Royal 

 Soc. of Edinburgh, vol. XXX. 1880. 



See also A. Geikie: The Tertiary Basalt-plateaux of North-vvestern Europe. Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. LII. 



