Throwing back to 2015… Kane and I visited Larne in Northern Ireland while we were driving around the UK. Larne is a small, seaport town on the east coast. People visit it to, ummm, well, they go to see…
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Ok, so Larne isn’t a picturesque, thriving tourist town, but Larne does have one thing a lot of places don’t…a seismite!
And what is a seismite? Glad you asked! A seismite is an earthquake preserved in rock. It’s different from a fault or fracture because at the time of formation the rock wasn’t fully-formed; it was still kind of soft and so deformed instead of breaking.
About 200 milllion years ago a large earthquake shook the UK. At the time of the earthquake the sediments that form the shoreline at Larne were semi-solid. So when the earthquake hit it deformed the layers, which then solidified at a later date; preserving some pretty cool structures. Unfortunately, I can’t find any photos of it from our visit, but fortunately the Internet provides (see below)…
There are also some really cool Jurassic-age marine fossils, ammonites, bivalves etc. In 1999 a university student also discovered an ichthyosaur fossil so keep your eyes peeled!
The site itself is very easy to access. There is a walkway along the shore and some basic information boards.
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Some things to note before you go:
- Go on low tide when the rocks are exposed
- There is no hammering for samples
- You’re probably not going to want to hang around Larne too long (sorry Larne!). We recommend driving north to see the Glens of Antrim and Giant’s Causeway.
Kane taking a stroll 
Seismite at Larne (courtesy of http://www.habitas.org.uk/larne/) 
Nice little ammonite 
Ammonite fragments 
Walkway along the shore 
Information board showing the location of the different geological units 
Low tide at Waterloo Bay 
Looking out over 15 milllion years of history