Origin and Formation of Coastal Boulder Deposits at Galway Bay and the Aran Islands, Western Ireland

1. Introduction

2. Study Sites, Methods and Aim

3. Results from field work

3.1 Observation on recent storm wave movement of coastal boulders on the Aran Islands and in Galway Bay

3.1.1 Size of dislocated boulders

3.1.2. Observations on recent storm wave boulder movement on Inishmore Island

3.1.3. Observations on Inishmaan Island

3.1.4 Observations along the SE coast of Galway Bay (Doolin to Black Head)

3.2 Summary of observations and comparison of storm wave moved boulders in western Ireland with other exposed sections of the World's coastline

4. Results: Organization and architecture of boulder clusters and boulder ridges

4.1. Imbrication and imbrication trains

4.2. Delicate setting and balancing boulders

4.3. Source of coastal boulders

4.4. Main boulder ridges in the Aran and Galway region

4.5. Double and multiple boulder ridges and boulder piles

4.6. Ripple features in coastal boulder ridges

5. Discussion

5.1. Recent activation of boulder ridges compared to existing deposits

5.2. Genesis of coastal boulder ridges in the Aran and Galway area

6. Conclusions