| Home | About | Contact | Site Map | Links | Library |
Unique Home Furniture, Home Decorating and Home Decoration Store
Rock Walls Prompted:
Brunel's radical wrought iron link suspension bridge design slung 214m between two sandstone towers hewn into the rock walls prompted much debate in the profession at the time.
Would it work? Could it be built? Would it cost too much?It was a triumph of youth and innovation over the establishment. His ideas eclipsed the alternative designs from the great and good of 19th-century engineering - including Thomas Telford, leading engineer of the time and founder of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Brunel's radical wrought iron link suspension bridge design slung 214m between two sandstone towers hewn into the rock walls prompted much debate in the profession at the time. Would it work? Could it be built? Would it cost too much?
The movement of the earth's crust may carry the rock as much as 700km (454 miles) below the surface. Here the temperature and pressure will be even higher and the rock will begin to melt. Molten rock is lighter than solid rock and it will begin to rise up through the overlying rock towards the surface. If it reaches the surface as a lava flow it will immediately be ready for weathering and erosion and the start of a new cycle. More often the molten rock solidifies underground and then all the rock above it must be eroded away before it can begin the cycle again.
.
