Ajui and more of the Vega Ring Complex

Day 2 of the F-island trip we went over to the west coast at Ajui/Puerto de la Pena where, as soon as we got out of the cars we were greeted by the sight of some splendid dykes cutting Mesozoic ocean floor sediments!
A well made path from the northern end of the beach leads up the cliff, past the overlying Pleistocene shallow water sands and marls, onto a ledge which we walked along to Caleta Negra, the next bay north. The sequence in the cliffs on the far side of the bay is stunning: upended Jurassic sediments cut by dykes as before at Ajui, then planed off by an erosion surface and then, above the unconformity, beach/coastal sediments and a lava flow, including a mass of pillow lavas in a channel!

The northern end of Ajui beach - vertical Mesozoic sediments at the bottom, intruded by dykes, then above that are Pleistocene sediments

Close view of the northern end of Ajui beach.

Sediments dipping steeply into the cliff are cut by a mafic dyke and both then cut by a trachyte dyke

Path up Ajui cliff makes it easy to walk upwards through the succession

Shallow water sediments at the top of the cliff

Caleta Negra

The cliff section at Caleta Negra

Originally we'd planned to walk on over the cliffs to the next bay and then up the barranco to investigate some more exposures of ocean crust but with temperatures climbing decided to leave that for another day. Instead we went back through Pajara and turned left to take the top road through the Vega Ring complex, stopping at miradors on the way.

A pebble of pyroxenite from the Tierra Mala instrusion just inland of Ajui, and south of the Vega ring complex

Mal Paso at the southern end of the Barranco below Vega de Rio Palmas: the white spot is the hermitage below the dam. An annular intrusion of syenite forms the hill in the centre and the slopes to the right.

From the mirador above the dam, we are standing on the crest of the syenite ridge looking north to a ridge formed of trachyte

From the second mirador, looking south over the dam between the two syenite hills. The embalse (reservoir) is currently dry and full of fine orange silt.

 Tomorrow - to the north of the island!