The author would appreciate any more similar photos of banding..

Please send to: john.mail "@" ozemail.com.au

John Byrnes, P.O. Box 121, BURWOOD, NSW 1805

ABOUT THE IRON OXIDE

"LIESEGANG-LIKE" BANDING

OFTEN SEEN IN SANDSTONE

Cut sandstone block at Gosford Quarries (Somersby plant):  Banded sandstone or sandstone with 'iron oxide rings, or so-called 'Liesegang' rings, is common amongst the cut product Hawkesbury Sandstone which has long been produced by Gosford Quarries.   In the present webpage the thicker darker iron oxide bands that separate the seemingly related band sets are referred to as "master bands". As can be seen in examples, the thicker/master bands confine sets of more subtle / delicate / regular banding but they are usually not seen to be in the  nature of members or culminations of those sets.  In three dimensions the forms of the banding may be like bulbous shells growing one upon the other.   Sometimes the shells are elongated or accreted on each other parallel to bedding.   The relative ages or timing of the sets can often be sensed.   In the above photo the lower left set is oldest, the lower right set is younger, and the upper set  is the youngest. (Photo:  Peter Adderley ; also see Peter's  "Down To Earth Geology Exhibition" ; and more examples like the above at http://www.adderley.net.au/geology/exhibition/04/04_02_11.html  ).

 

As the sandstone weathers the stronger 'master bands' often weather out into relief, whereas the more delicate bands rarely survive weathering and sometimes maybe be missing (leached) from stone very close to the surface.   In the Sydney Basin Triassic sandstones the weathering out of ironstone bands into relief may be seen almost anywhere but is particularly abundant in the Blue Mountains where it may give endless variety of shell like or even small 'log like' forms (much beloved of gardeners as rockery features, even though the collecting of bush rock is banned or discouraged).

 

 

Weathered out log-like form, near Mount Banks ( Photo:  John Merriman)

 

A fine example of the log-like (or 'canon'-like) form.  Sete Cidades National Park, Piauí State, Brazil.  This sandstone is Devonian and tourist literature describes the "canon" as iron oxide concretions.  They are in fluvial deposits of conglomeratic sandstone  with trough cross-bedding.  Similar but less regular forms occur in the Blue Mountains

"Sete Cidades Park is divided into seven different rock outcrop assemblages, called “cidades” (“cities”).  The First City is characterized by  diagenetic features known as “canhões”(“cannons”), long tubes made of ferrified sandstones (Figure 7). This diagenetic product is also  known as “rolls” or Liesegang rings and consist of a chromatographic-like migration of iron hydroxides into a permeable and isotropic medium,  normally  fluidized sandstones" ( translated - http://ig.unb.br/sigep/sitio025/sitio025english.htm ) .

 

Coalesced / accreted tubular forms, which are weathered out "master bands".   This location is at the Blue Mountains,

on the track along Knife Edge from Narrow Neck to Mount Solitary.   ( Photo: Geoffrey Phipps / Andrew King )

 

 

Masterbands weathering out at Capital Reefs National Park, Utah.  (Photo:  Turtletales)

 

   

 

 Site where climber Nick Kaczorowski had a fatal climbing accident involving an ironstone band in January 2009.  The cliff face 

is showng many sub-horizontal ironstone bands here (which is commonplace).   As Simon Carter reconstructed events, a

rock bolt pulled out and as Nick dropped his single rope was severed by the ironstone band labelled "first ledge" above. 

 ( http://www.onsight.com.au/news-blog/articles/36/nicks-accident-what-happened ) 

 

A pattern like the above might be due to the lateral growth of convex bulbous iron oxide banding sets, one upon another, spreading laterally within the confines of a sandstone bed. 

 

 

 

Formation akin to the above, seen at Smiths Creek.    ( Photo:   Anthony Dunk)

 

 Another example of sets being added laterally like this, seen at Petra, is shown below:

 

 

Lateral growth of banding sets confined to single beds of sandstone (Cambrian) at Petra.

(Photo:  Diego Lezema Orezzeli, 1994)

 

 

A more fully symmetrical example at Petra of the lateral growth pattern.   (Photo:  Peter Kelly)

 

The three dimensional form of the iron oxide shells is sometimes seen where they have weathered out.   Good examples of this are seen in the Narrabeen Group (Triassic) sandstones of the Blue Mountains:

 

 

Formation at Kariong known as the Bambara 'trough' or 'sluice' - Occurs near the eastern end of Bambarra Road.  (Photo:  Bob Clutton)

 

According to Bob Clutton who photographed the above trough-like formation (possibly a 'master-band' weathered out of a iron oxide bands set) this features in local Aboriginal myth as a 'birthing canal' (pers. com. Bob who conveys that he had that pers. comm. Gerry Borstock, Aboriginal elder). 

 

FOSSIL ROCK, Leura - Weathered-out ironstone banding on the Blue Mountains is often erroneously thought to be 'volcanic', or occasionally to be 'fossil logs' or even other sorts of fossils.   One of the areas near Leura where the ironstone shells are weathered out is known as "Fossil Rock".    This name has been around for a long time but who first called any rock a fossil there is not known.   It was apparently signposted as that or similar name by Council in the 1930s.  A book "Picturesque Katoomba", published ca. 1932, showed Council signpost to "The Fossil Rock".   However the name may be must older, as the 1884 "The Railway Guide of NSW" on page 45 mentions to see "The Fossil Rock" as on of the mountain attractions.  

 

Old postcards supposedly called it a fossil whale (pers. comm.; not seen).  One ironstone shell there was for long called the flipper of a whale or plesiosaur.   This idea still persists and on 10/06/2010 one internet user (darksideofthemoon2004) advised another one that good things to see on the Blue Mountains include this: "You could drive down the cliff side road to Leura and visit the fossil rock where there are fossilised remains of plesiosaurs that would have died in the shallow seas before the mountains rose... someone in Katoomba could tell you how to find that".   Apparently similar shapes exist also around Boars Head, formed by the three dimensional weathering out of the iron oxide shells.   No photos of any of these have yet been obtained but extra information has been sought from Blue Mountains Council.   Ironstone bands are a common feature of Sydney Basin sandstones and are especially prominent in the ways they weather out in the Blue Mountains.   Good example 'Leisegang' banding, complete also with 'master bands', and similar to the photo shown below by Zoltan Sylvester,  can be seen at the Sydney City Mission site ("Interlife") to train the young long-term unemployed, which is built in an abandonned sandstone quarry on the northwestern outskirts of Wentworth Falls.   To find this quarry follow the dirt road that turns off Blaxland Road opposite Cook Road.  The 'Leisegang' banding can be found in sandstone towards the top of the quarry.

 

Who first named the "Fossil Rock" as a fossil is not yet known.  Mr Rex Gilroy of Katoomba is well known for his plesiosaurs claims
(http://www.hawkesburygazette.com.au/news/local/news/general/panther-old-news-hawkesbury-now-has-a-dinosaur-problem/1595097.aspx).    That article details supposed sightings along the Hawkesbury River and aboriginal art that supposedly depicts plesiosaurs: "Researchers have confirmed Aboriginal art found on sandstone cliffs in Woy Woy to be that of a plesiosaur.  It is also alleged that there are cave drawings resembling a monster of this type at Muogamarra Sanctuary near Berowra.  Researchers were recently able to get an underwater photo of what they believe to be one of the creatures in the Hawkesbury River.  The photo depicts a dark shape underwater with a long neck and flippers consistent with the description of a plesiosaur.  The photo, accompanied with years of research, means Mr Gillroy and his research team have collected enough information on the Hawkesbury Monster to release a substantial publication" (the reference for this mentioned "substantial publication" is not yet known).   Mr Gilroy has been talking thus about plesiosaurs apparently from the mid 1960s.  However, the 'recognition' of the Fossil Rock likely dates from earlier that this.  Whether Rex Gilroy has actually written about Fossil Rock near Katoomba or not, is not known.   However, he has certainly told people about it.  He took Rob Johnson, a Sydney Morning Herald reporter, there in 1996 and told him "Where you're standing is the tail.  And see that arrow-shaped rock there?  That's the back fin."  (Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday March 23, 1996).

 

Clearly the three dimensional shapes and growth orientations of major iron oxide sets must somehow reflect epigenetic water movements and pathways, and some generalities of this have been considered by Seilacher (2001).

 

Some of the best known ironstone banding in sandstone is that to be seen at Petra in Jordon.  

 

 

Petra - the city carved inside sandstone, Jordan.  Photo of Al Khazneh.   (Photo: Annalisa Murray)

 

The city of Petra lies hidden in a rugged area accessible only through a narrow pass between jagged cliffs that is called As-Siq .   As-Siq (or 'the Siq' meaning 'shaft') is a natural passage in the rocks, which permitted the Nabateans to see who was entering their city without being seen.  Along one side of the Siq ran the channels which once carried water to the city from the springs of Moses.    "The Siq walls are a fantastic example of the sandstone’s beauty" says Nebo Tours , a leading tourism company in Jordan -  http://www.nebo.com.jo/jordan/petra.htm ).

 

Numerous tourists would agree.  Writes one (Analisa Murray, http://www.travelpod.com/members/annalisamurray ): 

 

""""""""

After “exiting” Christina, we were at As-Siq, the ancient main entrance to Petra.  The entrance alone was worth the journey!  An impressive 1200m long, As-Siq marks the opening to the long, deep, narrow gorges of the first part of Petra, hemmed in by cliffs soaring up to 80m tall.  Passing through As-Siq, once again I had the sensation of being such a small speck in such a grand universe!  Immediately, I saw colorful rocks (the rocks are roughly 550 million years old!); water channels cut into the cliffs; free-standing shrines and other rock sculptures, including an elephant and a camel; dams (11 total within Petra); niches and other carvings cut into the rock walls; and very different-looking geological formations.  Wow.  Every second, and at every turn, the views were so spectacular that I wanted to take as many pictures as possible – at the same time that I wanted just to BE STILL and ABSORB.  (PS – as a result, I have so many pictures of As-Siq – but I will try to limit the ones I upload here, as difficult as it is!)

As we approached the end of As-Siq, our group began to see the first sliver of Al-Khazneh, or The Treasury.  .  Just when I thought I’d seen enough dazzling sights already – the closer I walked toward The Treasury, the more that emerged from around the corner – until suddenly I was face to face with this gorgeous monument!

 

""""""""  

 

Evidence suggests that settlements had begun in and around Petra in the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt (1550-1292 BCE).  It was thriving towards the close of the 2nd century BC and began coinage c.85-60 BC.   Petra declined rapidly under Roman rule, and then in 363 a large earthquake seems to have destroyed many buildings, and crippled the vital water management system (Glueck, 2003).  Petra was not seen by any Europeans till Johann Ludwig Burckhardt entered it in 1812.

 

 

Inside Al Khazneh looking out at the Siq.

 

 

Entering Petra from inside the Siq, looking out at Al Khazneh

 

 

Gill and Ramos-Sanchez  ( http://www.scribd.com/doc/33323872/Coloured-Sandstones-in-Petra ) have considered the sandstone at Petra and the relatively simple mineralogy causing the colours, but have no insight into the 'Leisegang rings' there.

Lage crudely concentric 'shells'/bands of iron oxide seen cutting across low angle cross-bedding in sandstone at the carved out 'city' of Petra, Jordan - "Liesegang banding. - At Petra the sandstones are spectacularly colour-banded in yellow, orange, red, grey, brown and mauve. These patterns, termed Liesegang banding (or rings) by geologists, were formed deep underground by the rhythmic deposition of various iron and manganese compounds from mineral-rich water that once flowed within the rock" - Ian J. Andrews

 

 

 www.andrewsi.freeserve.co.uk/jordan-geology.htm 

 

 

"Wonderfull y coloured sandstone, Petra"    ( Photo:  Lin Matthews) 

 

 

 Similar photo at Petra, Jordan.   ( Photo:  Tim Melling)  -  Originally finer parallel bands lay between the

'master' set of bands but in places this has been obscured at Petra by later remobilisation of iron

leading to areas of uniform reddish stain and other areas of bleaching.

 

 

Petra - http://freelargephotos.com/101460_l.jpg  (Photo:  Mike Kramer  )

 

 

Petra - (Photo:  Alan Towse)

Tony Waltham (2008) wrote: "The rose-red city half as old as time is an incredible series of monuments carved out of Cambrian sandstone, which offers more than a little geological interest.  Both the site of Petra and its approach canyons are tightly controlled by the geology, and the sandstone itself is mineralized and coloured on a surprising scale".

 

   

Sliced sandstone of the Opoczno Hills, Poland.  This shows bleaching areas, as at Petra.   ( Photos: Krzysztof Małkowski )

 

Periodic precipitation or the "Liesegang phenomenon" is a particular type of chemical pattern formation. It was discovered by a German chemist and photographer, Raphael Eduard Liesegang in 1896 but did not have any adequate general explanation till many decades later.

Patterns or ironstone banding in sandstone are often erroneously referred to as "Liesegang banding".

 

( Photo: Zoltan Sylvester)  zsylvester.blogspot.com/ 2008_11_01_archive.html

Banding sets of the type strongly controlled by jointing.   Here the thicker oxide 'master bands' may

largely follow joints.   Example at Bouddi peninsula near Gosford.   (Per http://irna.lautre.net )

 

 

Another joint-controlled set of rings, at Putty beach northern end walking track.   Note also the strong offset of rings across a minor

diagonal fracture which is possibly post-jointing.  All such evidence suggests the iron movement is long post-diagenetic

and most likely is a weathering-related phenomenon.  (Photo:  Garry Riley 2011)

 

 

Same location.  Note symmetry around joints, suggesting the chemical effects spread outwards from joints, and

also that the banded (impregnated) stone becomes a harder body overall than the softer unmodified joint

core areas.     (Photo:  Garry Riley)

 

 

 

More similar banding "at a headland near Maitland Bay".   (Photos:  Larry Barron, 2007)

 

 

To demonstrate banding symmetry about the joint - a portion at top of above photo is copied from the left hand

side of the joint, rotated, and pasted to the right hand side (rectangle bounded by blue dots).

 

 

 

Remarkably symmetry out from joints, at Maria Island National Park, Tasmania.  (Photos: Tom Dempsey).

 

( Photo: Zoltan Sylvester)  zsylvester.blogspot.com/ 2008_11_01_archive.html

Showing "master bands".   These thicker bands separate bodies of more delicate conformable banding.  How they

form is unknown.   Are they formed at the same time as the banding sets or are they some sort of hiatus deposit?

Gosford Quarries cut sandstone.  ( Photo:  Peter Adderley ) 

 

 

In a quartzose sandstone, showing 'stacked' bulbous sets towards top.

 (Photo: James St. John)

 

 

 

Stacked bulbous sets, at Petra.  (Photo:  bastis135 )

 

 

 

Another in the series of photos at Petra by bastis135 (Hans and Elisabeth Waltersdorfer in Austria) (http://www.werkstatt-waltersdorfer.at).

  ( http://community.webshots.com/photo/fullsize/1013368258027996579RrjDLeTyRU )  Note that the smaller shell, below centre,

contains bands belonging to larger set so is  presumably superimposed later on.

 

 

 

A Petra industry of making banded sand inside bottles, complete with camels and palm trees in

some cases.    ( Photo:   Analisa Murray )

 

This type of iron oxide banding is most commonly well displayed in sandstone but it may occur in other rock types as well.   Is is known from a considerable variety of rock types and the illustration below is in tuff. 

 

 

 

Similar banding occurs in rocks other than sandstone.  This is in tuff  (Photo: James St. John)

 

 

Superimposition of sets

 

The illustration below is of several sets superimoposed.

 

 

"Strange banding" seen in a cave near Staples Lookout, Woy Woy.  Three or so sets of delicate banding are

criss-crossing or superimposed.   (Photo:  Anthony Dunk, http://adunk.ozehosting.com )

 

Anthony notes that this is not the only instance of this sort of thin banding that he has seen around the Gosford area, but it is the one with the strangest crossing of banding lines.   Similar features are seen in sandstone cladding used on recent blocks of high rise at the Rhodes waterfront, Homebush Bay but where that sandstone is from has not yet been learned of (probably the Gosford area).

 

 

Superimposed banding in Old Red Sandstone, Skirza, Caithness, Scotland.  (Photo:  Shandchem)

 

 

Clear example at Petra of two different sets of banding superimposed in the sandstone.   (Photo:  bastis135 )

 

 

Also at Petra:  A large sequence of bands, expanding generally to the left and upper left, has had superimposed on it above

a  'master band' a later sequeence expaneding in some other near-orthogonal direction.   (Photo:  Serghei Pakhomoff)

 

 

Two to three subsequent formed intersecting sets seen at Smith's Creek.    Also, hand stencils.   (Photo: Anthony Dunk )

 

 

 

Very large scale band sets at another famous iron banding in sandstone site, called "The Wave", in Arizona.

 

“The Wave” tourist attraction (above) in the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone at Coyote Buttes, lies at the northern margin of the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument on the Arizona and Utah border.  This feature, named for its resemblance to cresting ocean waves, is a great atttaction to wilderness enthusiasts and photographers.   There are are also areas where the prominent "liesegang rings" are overprinted by a lighter yellowish liesegang-type banding.   

 

True Liesegang banding refers to parallel bands of precipitate formed by diffusion along a single chemical gradient during one single precipitation episode.  What's seen in sandstone, however, consists  of sets of irregularly concentric bands, with different sets of bands quite frequently oriented in different directions.  There is sometimes cross-cutting and suspected dissolution of older sets.  The iron oxide banding would seem to result from numerous precipitation events over long periods of time by moving groundwater.

 

In some examples, as can be seen above, particularly thick bands may mark the boundary between major set changes.  

 

As a generality, new sets develop 'outwards' in the general direction of laminae convexity.

These band sets often go by the misnomer of "Liesegang Banding" but they are not that and they do not show and real similarity to that phenomenon (characterised by geometric increase of band spacing, etc. - see below).

 

It is because such banding seen in sandstone is so often called "Liesegang" banding, that it is appropriate to consider what real  Liesegang banding is.

 

 

 

LIESEGANG BANDING

The German chemist Raphael E. Liesegang discovered this banding phenomenon when he accidentally dropped a little silver nitrate on a layer of gel containing potassium dichromate, and this caused silver dichromate to begin precipitating as concentric rings.

Raphael Eduard Liesegang and his 1896 paper about periodic precipitation "Ueber einige Eigenschaften von Gal-lerten"

[On some properties of gelatin], in Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift.

 

 

Typical Liesegang patterns: silver-chromate rings diffused in gelatine, and  and two "linear systems" formed in test tubes.

 

Although Liesegang publicised these rings and his name became indelibly associated with them he might not have been the first to observe them.  Such chemical patterning earlier on had fascinated Frederic Ferdinand Runge.  Runge began experimenting with pattern making as early as 1855.  As his reaction medium he used just the simplicity of filter-paper saturated with various electrolyte solutions.

In 1896 Raphael Liesegang was experimenting with gelatine layers swollen by solution of potassium-dichromate. He accidentally dropped a small crystal of silver-nitrate onto a specimen, and was astonished that the precipitate formed concentric rings about it. Distances between adjacent rings were always increasing outward Rapael noted.

Later on Liesegang systematically investigated this phenomenon and published many papers about his findings.  As his work was the first detailed investigation on the field of spatiotemporal precipitate patterns, "quasiperiodic precipitation" was called Liesegang phenomenon by those who followed.  It is commonplace to talk about Liesegang rings or Liesegang bands too.

Liesegang's results were of interest to Wilhelm Ostwald, who published the first detailed model for quasiperiodic precipitation in his book about general chemistry in 1897.  This is the so-called supersaturation theory, that later appeared in many publications.

Wilhelm Ostwald who developed the first quantitative model (supersaturation model) for periodic precipitation and gave it the name that is used today - "Liesegang phenomenon".   At right is the title page of the book in which Ostwald described his model.

Later, in 1923, Jablczinsky determined that distances of Liesegang rings measured from the origin of the pattern were always members of a geometrical series.  This is the so-called spacing law of Liesegang patterning.

The Liesegang phenomenon is further treated in detail by András Büki at http://www.insilico.hu/liesegang   (email: 

 

Dr. András Büki did his Ph.D. in chemistry on the Liesegang phenomenon

András Büki, a chemist specialising in mathematics and parallel computer systems developed a "parallel simulation system called ReaDiVivus" to solve "coupled, non-linear stochastic reaction-diffusion equations up to 3D", via which he believes he cracked the mystery of the Liesegang phenomenon ( but to the non-mathematics minded Dr. Büki's 'solution' might appear just as mysterious as the phenomenon itself? ).

Dr. Büki has written textbooks on chemistry for secondary schools and also a book "UNIX/Linux héjprogramozás" on (shell programming.

His doctorate title was "Investigation of possible mechanisms of the Liesegang phenomenon by computer simulation" - PhD Theses, Technical University of Budapest, Department of Physical Chemistry, 1995.   

 

Article in "Complexus mundi: emergent patterns in nature" by Miroslav Michal Novak.

Although no good understanding exists to link the ferruginous banding in sandstone with the Liesegang phenomenon, the above article purports to have shown that such is theoretically possible (as practically demonstrated) in ferruginous limestone.

 

Acknowledgment

Geoffrey Potter, Local Studies Librarian at Gosford Library is thanked for bringing to attention the photograph of the usual looking outcrop with iron oxide banding on top of a cliff overhanging Putty Beach in the Sydney Morning Herald of 15 May 2010

( http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/16464580?searchTerm=killcare ).

 

 

REFERENCES

[This file] - Byrnes, J., 2010.   Iron oxide "leisegang-like" banding in sandstone.  [as accessed July 2010 from http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5737284/iron-liesegang-in-sandstone.htm].  Filed in "Geology of the Gosford District", Local Studies Vertical File, Gosford Library, Gosford City Council.

 

Glueck, Grace, 2003.   Retrieved from article of 2003-10-17:  "ART REVIEW; Rose-Red City Carved From the Rock".   The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D03E3DF143EF934A25753C1A9659C8B63. (Retrieved 2010-05-22). 

 

Liesegang, R. E. , 1896.   Ueber einige Eigenschaften von Gal-lerten [On some properties of gelatin].  Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift 11: 353-362.

 

Liesegang, R.E.  1945.  Geologische Bänderungen durch Diffusion und Kapillarität [Geologic banding by diffusion and capillarity].  Chemie der Erde, Zeitschrift der Chemischen, Mineralogie, Petrographie, Geologie und Bodenkunde 15: 420-423.

 

Seilacher, Adolf, 2001.   Concretion morphologies reflecting diagenetic and epigenetic pathways.  Sedimentary Geology. Vol. 143, Issues 1-2, pp. 41-57.

 

Waltham, T., 2008.  The sandstone fantasy of Petra.   Geology Today.  Vol. 10, Issue 3, pp. 105-111.

 

Wells, N.A., Waughm D.A. and Foos, A.M.,  2003.  Some notes and hypotheses concerning iron and iron remobilization features in the Sharon Formation (Summit County, Ohio).  In  Pennsylvanian Sharon Formation, past and present: sedimentology, hydrogeology, and historical and environmental significance, a field guide to Gorge Metro Park, Virginia Kendall Ledges in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and other sites in northeast Ohio.  Ohio Division of Geological Survey.  Guidebook 18, pp. 33-37.