Granite Tor Moorland

Granite Tor Moorland is an original illustration set in Southwest England Uplands. It lies in mid-latitudes, where the climate is oceanic — mild, wet through the year.

Stacks of huge rounded granite blocks stand separated by deep horizontal joints, with detached egg-shaped boulders scattered around them. Wet heather and coarse grass fill the ground between. Shallow rain pools reflect a flat overcast sky, and the moor runs empty to the horizon.

Why is the granite stacked in horizontal slabs?

The horizontal joints came first, deep underground, when the granite cooled and unloaded. Weathering then worked along them from below while soil still covered the rock; when the soil stripped away, the rounded stacks were left standing. Heather and permanent wet mean an acid, leached soil under a cool oceanic climate — and the absence of trees on ground that could support them points to long grazing.

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