out(crop)standing?

JohnPeel, or Krystal Rock as it is also called by locals, is a very defined shape, almost like a musical note. Around its sides are some very defined sections, one of curving thick Quartz and the other some sort of limestone.

Inside the rock you can find the most puzzling and strange mixture of Quarts veins and massive Quartz crystals, limestone, red and black stones. Some of them appear to follow lines. This rock looks to be ignacious or metamorphic, anything other than sedimentary. People say it is Volcanic looking but Malta is not meant to have any Volcanic activity.

JohnPeel at Surfside, Sliema, Malta

JohnPeel must have been seen by most Maltese as it is beside the Sliema Sea Front (Tower Road), on the beach by the very popular Surfside Bar and Restaurant with free sun beds in the summer with great music, food and a bar open late into the chilled out night.
For more information on Surfside Restaurant and a special food/drink offer click here

Have you got the minerals?

Around some of the outside of JohnPeel rock there are thick lines of different minerals. One part is very thick quartz which looks like Tigers-Eye Quartz. According to "Gemstones of the World" book this Quartz is formed where the iron from the decomposed crocidolite has oxidised to a brown color, keeping the fibrous structure."

In one section on the top you find these amazing quartz lines. Perpendicular (right angles) to each other. The lower globigerina limestone is seen in a number of strange brick like shapes with a central nodule. The area around these quartz right angles is particularly mixed. How were the lines formed yet the limestone remains so untouched? Again you get the double layered quartz seen all over Malta.

Everything about this powergon is stunning but of great interest are the mini fissures with quartz linings (red and black). The quartz plating can be a few inches apart and then join together to be a quartz double layer. The limeston in the middle is missing.

Quartz is a "replacement" mineral, especially on an limestone/sandstone island like Malta. Maybe it is a "replacement mineral" but the host rock has been converted into quartz by the application and forces of heat, energy, pressure. With the quartz plating in the fissures the missing limestone material itself, transformed into quartz. How the energy to transform the host material into quartz is unknown. Any process that can apply energy and pressure could be the cause. If these fissures were involved in electrical activity this can create a magnetic field that applies pressure and energy to a localised area.

Mini ridge/arete?

JohnPeel is made up of the craziest mixture of minerals/rock you will ever see on a limestone/sandstone beach, especially in Malta. JohnPeel rock has a tail leading to or from it to another area of strange rock. It looks like an Arete. The same force of nature is likely to have formed both areas of these out of place rocks/minerals and the arete as they different to the surrounding beach area.
Beside the mad looking Krystal are some possible EU EDM craters.

Strange Lump appeared?

Is JohnPeel a developing Qolla from a large Powergon? It has the Powergon shape (point with a tail attached). It may be the start of a Qolla as there are other possible mini Qolla's or starter Qolla's nearby. One is where JohnPeels tail (ridge) finishes and another Qolla (not like JohnPeel though) can be seen down the beach (south). This one has a very large and wide tail attached to it.

JohnPeel and the other electroblemes beside Triq It-Torri show all the signs of gEUlogy. A must see if you are in Malta and with SurfSide so close its a perfect location for a day out on a Maltese (rocky) beach.

Surfside Restaurant - the only place this Summer

Where else can you get free sunbeds and have access to a bar, music and food all day and nearly all night? Good snorkelling area and easy access by the bus. All this and one of the most amazing Electroblemes within a few meters.
Surfside is on the popular Maltese beach (sandstone) in Sliema (Tower Road) and is a superb place to chill out during the day or watch the sunset with a drink or 3. You can sit up top and be part of the great view and special atmosphere of Malta as the sun sets or relax outside on the terrace in the middle section.
If you want it a bit more lively then there are plenty of seats and shade downstairs by the beach bar - relax with a pint of local lager called Cisk (pronouned "Ch isk"), listen to the music and taste the sea as you will only be a few meters away from the surfside.
If its a bit cold or raining then the middle section has floor to high ceiling windows, so you can keep warm but still be beside the seaside.

Surfside will also deliver their food but deliveries are only to the local areas. They also do take-aways. For a different Pizza try the Calzone Pizza but if you don't like mushrooms then remember to ask not to have them or only a few. Who knew that Ambrosia is hard boiled eggs on a folded Pizza?

All the great local old yellow Malta buses from St Julians or Paceville and are going to Valletta will take you to the Surfside Grill, as the bus stops outside a Kiosk within 25 yards.

The Surfside Restaurant website says or did say "FREE BOTTLE OF HOUSE WINE FOR EVERY 2 PEOPLE DINING WHEN YOU MENTION OUR WEB SITE!" but check their website to make sure this special offer is still on.