The Torrey Canyon Quarry

I took my friend out on her first ever geocaching adventure. the afternoon shot by even though we got soaked through twice. We both enjoyed it so will repeat next time we can both find a free half day. Hopefully she may decide to take up geocaching.

This pic is of the beach but I am standing with my back to the Torrey Canyon quarry.

The story starts way back in 1967 when the supertanker SS Torrey Canyon was carrying crude oil from Kuwait to Milford Haven in Wales. On the morning of Saturday 18th March 1967, she ran aground on Pollard's Rock between Land's End and the Isles of Scilly. As a result, over 100,000 tonnes of crude oil leaked from her ruptured hull into the Atlantic Ocean. 19 days after the disaster a huge slick of oil was washed up on our beaches. In the clean-up operation that followed, around 3000 tonnes of oil were removed from the beaches. The oil needed to be put somewhere and the quarry here at the headline coordinates on the Chouet headland was chosen. Since then, it has become known as the Torrey Canyon quarry.
Although this oil has been treated and removed it always seems to return and the typical rainbow colours that oil on water produces is clearly visible