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The Waterfront hall, recently said to be rebranded as ICC Belfast is the flagship of the Lanyon place development, opened in 1997 it has become an Iconic building in Belfast.
We are focussing on the paving around the building. The paving is made of Caithness flag stone and at 1400m Square is one of the biggest contracts that has used this stone.
Now a little about the stone.. Flagstone is a sedimentary rock, usually a form of a sandstone composed of feldspar and quartz and is arenaceous in grain size (0.16 mm – 2 mm in diameter).
The material that binds flagstone is usually composed of silica, calcite, or iron oxide. The rock colour usually comes from these cementing materials. Typical flagstone colours are red, blue/grey, and buff, though exotic colours exist.
The flagstone here in Belfast was obtained from the quarry in Spital. The facility of Caithness sandstone to split into thin slices or flags (from the Norse word ' flaga ' - a flag) occurred because 370 million years ago during the Devonian period, the Orcadian Basin covered the whole of the north of Scotland and out into the North Sea. During part of its history, the basin was filled by a lake now known as Lake Orcadie. In that lacustrine environment, a sequence of finely bedded sedimentary rocks was deposited, containing well-preserved fish fossils, with alternating layers of mudstone and coarse siltstone to very fine sandstone. These flagstones split easily along the bedding and have been used as building material for thousands of years.
The deposits of the Orcadian Basin form part of the Old Red Sandstone (ORS). The lithostratigraphic terms lower, middle and upper ORS, however, do not necessarily match exactly with sediments of lower, middle and upper Devonian age, as the base of the ORS is now known to be in the Silurian and the top in the Carboniferous.
The Silurian Period occurred from 443 million to 416 million years ago. It was the third period in the Paleozoic Era. It followed the Ordovician Period and preceded the Devonian Period. During this time, continental landmasses were low and sea levels were rising. During the Carboniferous the atmospheric content of oxygen reached their highest levels in geological history, 35% compared with 21% today. This increased the atmospheric density by a third over today’s value and for the evolution of the first reptiles
Now to log this EC, please answer the following questions to the best of your ability….
1 What kind of rock is Caithness Flagstone.
2 What period was this rock formed.
3 Take a look around your feet how many different colours can you see.
4 Is the stone rough or smooth, why do you think this is.
5 What makes this stone ideal for paving.
6 You must take a picture of yourself or a thumbs up sign at the sheep , those that do not post a photo may have their log deleted.
Feel free to log this EC after you send me the answers. I will email you if your answers are badly wrong.
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