The statue of The Little Mermaid (Den lille havfrue) is an iconic symbol of Copenhagen. Not many tourists visit the capital of Denmark without paying a visit to her. So did I few days ago. It was my first visit to Copenhagen. I was there with my wife and children. Copenhagen was one stop of our tour of Nordic countries which also involved visits to Åland and southern Sweden. This trip was not planned to be geological but geology is almost everywhere. So I think I also managed to collect material for a couple of blog posts.
The Little Mermaid seems to be very remotely connected to geology, if at all. However, I noticed that interestingly the mermaid sits on a foundation of several boulders which all seem to have a different lithology. I can not be sure because obviously I could not sample these rocks. I only saw them from a distance of several meters but my guess is that the mermaid is sitting on a granitic boulder. Below that is a light-colored and layered sandstone or quartzite. On the left from sandstone is a migmatitic boulder. In front of them seems to be a gabbro. And the dark-colored boulder on the lower right could be amphibolite.
The Little Mermaid and geology beneath her.
Five rocks, all of them different. I don’t know whether it is intentional or just happened that way but The Little Mermaid statue provides something even for die hard geologists.
I think this is also quintessentially Danish, in a way. ALL rocks in Denmark are glacial erratics, so this little assemblage is very typical. I’m almost disappointed there isn’t a rhomb porphyry there in the mix. 🙂