earth science

Loch Na Fooey

Loch Na Fooey is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Loch Na Fooey rather than just read about it. In short: Loch Na Fooey (Irish: Loch na Fuaiche, meaning 'lake of the fissure'), also Loch Nafooey or Lough Nafooey, is a rectangular shaped glacial lake in County Galway, Ireland. Part of the north-eastern shore lies along the border to County Mayo.

Key takeaways

Loch Na Fooey belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Loch Na Fooey to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Loch Na Fooey from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Loch Na Fooey (Irish: Loch na Fuaiche, meaning 'lake of the fissure'), also Loch Nafooey or Lough Nafooey, is a rectangular shaped glacial lake in County Galway, Ireland. Part of the north-eastern shore lies along the border to County Mayo. The closest village is Finny, County Mayo with the County Galway village of Leenaun approximately 11 km distant.

At approximately 2.5 miles long and 0.5 miles wide, Loch Na Fooey is set in a steep-sided valley, surrounded by the mountains of Galway to the south and Mayo's Partry Mountains to the north. Several rivers feed the lake, including the River Fooey (Irish: Abhainn na Fuaiche), which rises from the Devil's Mother mountain and enters the lake at the western shore. The Finny River, rising from the south-east of the lake, drains into the southwest part of Lough Mask. Also, many mountain streams flow into the lake. The lake has a small sandy shore on its western end. There are several extinct volcanoes in locations like Armagh, Dublin, Offaly, and the Loch na Foeey in Galway. They are not believed to be dangerous. The area around Loch Na Fooey is known as the site of the ancient "Finny volcano" (490 million years ago). Most of the volcanic activity occurred during the Ordovician, when Western and Central Europe separated from the rest of Europe and what is now Asia. As recently as 60 million years ago, Europe and America were still converging. There was no Atlantic Ocean. All over Ireland, there remains geological evidence of the volcanic age. Many of its hills are remains of extinct volcanoes. Hundreds of millions of years ago, the Iapetus Ocean began to shrink as mountains formed in parts of the ocean, before North America separated from Europe. These formations still exist in North America, Greenland, Norway, and Ireland. The volcano's landform is now gone, but some of the volcanic rocks are preserved in the area, including pillow lavas, and breccia. There is a small funnel-shaped island close to the south-eastern shore known as Red Island (An tOileán Rua). The waters hold a range of fish including wild brown trout and pike. The locality has some walks for both experienced hill walkers and others. In folklore, the lake is said to be home to An Capall Uisce or the Water Horse, a mythical Celtic creature.

See also List of loughs in Ireland List of volcanoes in the Republic of Ireland

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Loch Na Fooey

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Loch Na Fooey claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Loch Na Fooey before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Loch Na Fooey ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Loch Na Fooey

In research: Loch Na Fooey appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Loch Na Fooey in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Loch Na Fooey is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cambrian volcanoes, Extinct volcanoes of Europe, Gaeltacht places in County Galway, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Loch Na Fooey outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Loch Na Fooey in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Loch Na Fooey means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Loch Na Fooey out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Loch Na Fooey in simple terms?

Why does Loch Na Fooey matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Loch Na Fooey?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Loch Na Fooey.