Frost Cracked Rock - Svalbard - 4 - Troll Bread

"Troll bread" is my favourite example of rocky erosion (which is about as geeky a phrase as you could get I guess).

This piece is about 15cm (6") high, they are quite common in the right areas though not all so pleasing of form as this particular piece.

They are the result of two separate but related phenomena. The first is where a rock is split with fracture lines along the same plane so producing the parallel slices of "bread". The second is where the same rock that is buried beneath the ground becomes slowly pushed to the surface as a result of countless freeze-thaw cycles. The result being prominent sliced rocks waiting for the troll to visit the supermarket.