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| Looking north from Morro de Veloso |
We began the day with a trip up to the mirador at Morro de Veloso where we managed to kill 3 birds with one stone - we saw some stupendous views across much of the island.
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| Spotting dyke trends along a track |
We found evidence of the NNE-SSW trending dyke swarm ...
and we had a coffee!
Then we went on to see more evidence of dykes on the road south of Betancuria where the syenite dykes in a road cutting also contained blobs of darker, more mafic material
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| Cutting south of Betancuria |
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| Syenite dyke with mafic blebs |
.. as well as some stunning Liesegang ring patterns and manganese dendrites!
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| Liesegang rings and manganese dendrites |
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| Vega de Rio de Palmas |
From there we headed down into Vega de Rio de Palma where the track down towards the gorge promised a section through part of the igneous 'ring complex' - the heart of the shield volcano that existed here some 20 Ma ago.
The best was along the first part of the path where there were exposures of a beautiful pale gabbro with clumps of mafic minerals, all crosscut by at least 2 sets of dykes. Finally the high afternoon temperatures kicked in and we turned back and headed for the pool at Caleta de Fuste!
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| Gabbro in the Vega ring complex |
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| Mafic and felsic dykes cutting the gabbro |
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| Shade! |
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