Hutton's Unconformity

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

1- 8 1s cross RH and cast (2s step up); 1s dance down between 3M+4M (who step up), cast behind 3L+4L (who step up) to 4th place opposite side while 2s cross RH and cast to 2nd place as 3M+4M step up. [Men's side: 3M,2L,3L,1L; Ladies' side: 4M,2M,4L,1M]
9-16 1s followed by 2s dance down (3L+4L step up 11-12); 2s followed by 1s dance up to 3rd/4th place
17-20 3s+4s also 2s+1s circle 4H ½ round to left (2 bars), turn partner 2H [Men's side: 4L,4M,1M,2M; Ladies' side: 3L,3M,1L,2L]
21-24 3s+4s also 2s+1s circle 4H ¾ round to right, retain hands with neighbour and face partner, 4s+3s at top, 1s+2s Men facing down Ladies facing up
25-28 4s cross passing RSh, cast and face up nearer hands joined while
 3s advance and retire (1 bar each), cross up passing LSh and face down nearer hands joined while
 1s+2s advance and retire up/down (1 bar each) and ½ turn partner 2H, retain nearer hands facing in
29-32 3s+4s set and link across back to own sides while 1s+2s set and link on sides [Men's side: 3M,4M,2M,2L; Ladies' side: 3L,4L,1M,1L]

(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)

Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams

Hutton's Unconformity - Full Size And Key To Symbols

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Dance Information

James Hutton FRSE (1726–1797), often referred to as the "Father of Modern Geology", was a Scottish geologist, agriculturalist, chemical manufacturer, naturalist and physician.

Hutton advanced the idea that the physical world's remote history can be inferred from evidence in present-day rocks. Through his study of features in the landscape and coastlines of his native Scottish lowlands, such as Salisbury Crags or Siccar Point, he developed the theory that geological features could not be static but underwent continuing transformation over indefinitely long periods of time.

From this he argued, in agreement with many other early geologists, that the Earth could not be young. He was one of the earliest proponents of what in the 1830s became known as uniformitarianism, the science which explains features of the Earth's crust as the outcome of continuing natural processes over the long geologic time scale.

In the summer of 1785 at Glen Tilt and other sites in the Cairngorm mountains in the Scottish Highlands, Hutton found granite penetrating metamorphic schists, in a way which indicated that the granite had been molten at the time. This was Hutton's first geological field trip and he was invited by the Duke of Atholl to his hunting lodge, Forest Lodge. The exposures at the Dail-an-eas Bridge demonstrated to him that granite formed from the cooling of molten rock rather than it precipitating out of water as others at the time believed, and therefore the granite must be younger than the schists. Hutton presented his theory of the earth on March 4 and April 7, 1785, at the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

He went on to find a similar penetration of volcanic rock through sedimentary rock in Edinburgh, at Salisbury Crags, adjoining Arthur's Seat - this area of the Crags is now known as Hutton's Section. He found other examples in Galloway in 1786, and on the Isle of Arran in 1787.

The existence of angular unconformities had been noted by Nicolas Steno and by French geologists including Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, who interpreted them in terms of Neptunism as "primary formations". Hutton wanted to examine such formations himself to see "particular marks" of the relationship between the rock layers. On the 1787 trip to the Isle of Arran he found his first example of Hutton's Unconformity to the north of Newton Point near Lochranza, but the limited view meant that the condition of the underlying strata was not clear enough for him, and he incorrectly thought that the strata were conformable at a depth below the exposed outcrop.

Later in 1787 Hutton noted what is now known as the Hutton or "Great" Unconformity at Inchbonny, Jedburgh, in layers of sedimentary rock. As shown in the illustrations below, layers of greywacke in the lower layers of the cliff face are tilted almost vertically, and above an intervening layer of conglomerate lie horizontal layers of Old Red Sandstone. He later wrote of how he "rejoiced at my good fortune in stumbling upon an object so interesting in the natural history of the earth, and which I had been long looking for in vain." That year, he found the same sequence in Teviotdale.

Hutton Unconformity, Jedburgh
The Section Is Located About 5 Minutes Walk From The Jedburgh Abbey, Scotland

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