seaweed

                              Seaweed

Unlike land plants, seaweeds have no branches and leaves, but instead they have fronds. Some fronds have a ridge running down the centre called a mid-rib and some have air-filled bubbles called bladders.

Green, brown, delicate, bold and sometimes smelly – seaweeds remain often unnoticed or are even disregarded as useless. They are, however, an essential ingredient in sushi, miso soup, jellies, sweets or squirty cream and Jersey has a long tradition in gathering seaweeds. Here are some examples of seaweed in jersey

Bladder wrack
Latin: Fucus vesiculosus
Location: Middle shore

Uses: Finely cut up and used in vegetables e.g. beans when cooked/simmered over a long time. The pods at the end of the fronds contain a jelly like substance which can be used like an Aloe-Vera style hand cream. here have been reports of this jelly like substance rubbed onto arthritic 

Gut weed

Latin: Ulva intestinalis

Location: All around the coast

Uses: Deep fry, dry and make green Nori flakes and use to sprinkle over salads, pizza, noodles or incorporate into bread or fishy sauce, on top of fish dishes and in salads.

kelp

Latin: laminariales                                                                                                                                      
Location: under the sea
Uses: Through the 19th century, the word "kelp" was closely associated with seaweeds that could be burned to obtain soda ash

Oar weed

Latin: Laminaria digitata

Location: Extreme lower shore

Uses: stock, flavour enhancer, seaweed crisps. Wrap fish in kelp before placing on a BBQ 

Many different animals eat seaweed including fish, seals, humans, sea turtles, crabs, lobsters and other sea animals.

Rhyolite

                                                                     Rhyolite
What Type of Rock Is It? Igneous
What Minerals Make Up the Rock? quartz, feldspars; Sometimes contain: biotite, diopside, hornblende, zircon
What Does It Look Like? Usually light colored; light gray, tan, reddish, greenish, brown. Fine grained, but often contains scattered larger crystals. May contain small pockets that were gas bubbles. Sometimes shows flow lines or bands.
How Was It Formed? Rhyolite is a volcanic rock. It forms from the rapid cooling of a magma or lava that contains a lot of silica (quartz). The molten material often contains gas bubbles which freeze into the rock. Pumice is a kind of rhyolite that has really a lot of tiny gas bubbles in it.

diorite

                                                                    Diorite

What Type of Rock Is It? Igneous
What Minerals Make Up the Rock? Dark colored plagioclase, hornblende, pyroxene, and sometimes a little quartz. May contain: light colored plagioclase feldspars, but only a little.
What Does It Look Like? Mostly it looks like a dark colored granite. The dark colored plagioclase feldspars and pyroxenes give it a darker color. It is usually medium to dark gray. Unlike granite, diorite has no mica, or very little, and those are dark colored. It is coarse grained (larger than rice).
How Was It Formed? Diorite forms deep in the earth's crust from cooling magma - just like granite. But, the magma does not contain a lot of quartz or the light colored minerals that make up the granite. Instead it contains only dark  minerals.

Granite

                                                                   Granite        
     What Type of Rock Is It? Igneous
What Minerals Make Up the Rock? quartz, feldspars (microcline, orthoclase, albite), biotite, muscovite; Sometimes contain: hornblende, augite, magnetite, zircon
What Does It Look Like? The feldspars give granite most of its color, which may be white to light gray, yellowish, or pink. The quartz is usually smoky gray or white. Black specks of biotite, or sometimes hornblende, are common. So is silvery to brownish muscovite. Granite is coarse grained to very coarse grained. The crystals are randomly arranged (unlike gneiss where they are in lines or layers).
How Was It Formed? Granite forms deep in the earth's crust from cooling magma. The magma contains a lot of silica (quartz). Slow cooling produces the large crystals in granite.

Basalt

                                                       Basalt


What Type of Rock Is It? Igneous
What Does It Look Like? Basalt is dark grey to black. When exposed to the weather, it may turn yellow or brown on its surface. Basalt is fine grained rock You may or may not be able to see crystals with a hand magnifier. The crystals are often microscopic. Basalt is a hard, tough rock. It is difficult to break. Sometimes, basalt contains gas bubbles. It is then called vesicular basalt.
What Minerals Make Up the Rock? plagioclase feldspars, augite, hypersthene, olivene

How Was It Formed? Basalt is a volcanic rock. It is formed from a magma that is rich in iron and magnesium, and poor in silica (quartz). The magma erupts from a volcano or a fissure (a crack in the earth's surface) as lava. Because the lava cools rather quickly, basalt is fine grained. there is not time enough for the grains to become larger.

slate

                                       
                                                               slate
What Type of Rock Is It? Metamorphic
What Minerals Make Up the Rock? micas, feldspars, quartz (but they can not be recognized because the grains are so small you would need a microscope to see them); Sometimes contain: pyrite
What Does It Look Like? Slate can be black, grey, brownish red, bluish grey, or greenish grey. It is very fine grained and has thin, quite smooth, flat layers. Unlike shale, slate easily splits into thin flat pieces. It often will scratch glass, with a little difficulty.
How Was It Formed? Slate is usually formed from clay sediments or shale that has been heated and put under pressure by plate collisions. The pressures and temperatures that form slate are lower than those that form schist.