Rocks, resources and scenery

Rocks, resources and scenery

1. Quarry

   • Restoring quarries
     • Drayton Sand and Gravel Quarries
       • Near Chichester, West Sussex
       • Large lake and public woodland
     • Eden Project
     • Restoring or improving the environmental quality of a quarry, during or after operations
   • Hope Quarry
     • Located on the outskirts of Castleton, in the Peak District
     • Largest limestone quarry in Peak District
     • Supplies 2 million tonnes of limestone/year
     • Employs 182 local people
     • Cement works
       • Produces 1.3 million tonnes cement/year
       • Opened in 1929
     • Local economy supports shops and services - multiplier effect
   • Impacts of quarrying
     • Before
       • Wildlife habitats destroyed
       • Noise and dust
       • Congestion
     • During
       • Waste tips
       • Blasting creates scars
       • Heavy lorry traffic disturbs local area
       • Ponds used for water storage
       • Ugly buidings
       • Farming stops
     • After
       • Leaves ugly scars on landscape
       • Surface drainage disturbed

2. Weathering

   • Chemical
     • Solution
       • Calcium carbonate rocks reacts with carbonic acid (formed by water and carbon dioxide)
     • Carbonation
       • Slightly acidic water dissolves rocks
   • Biological
     • Tree roots
     • Burrowing
   • Physical
     • Freeze thaw
       • Water seeps into cracks, freezes (water expands 10%), puts pressure on rock forcing it apart
     • Exfoliation
       • Occurs in hot climates. Rocks expand when heated and contract when cooled. This makes the top layer of rock flake off

3. Uses of rocks

   • Chalk
     • Cement
     • Aquifers
     • Source of lime for farming and industry
   • Clay
     • Made into pottery and bricks
     • Reservoirs on flat land
   • Granite
     • Kitchen worktops
     • Building stones
     • Sheep farming on poor pastures
     • Reservoirs on steep land
     • Tin and other metals from veins in rock
     • Tourism
   • Limestone
     • Gardens
     • Source of lime for farming and industry
     • Cement
     • Dry stone walls
     • Potholing, climbing, walking

4. Geological time

5. Rock cycle

6. Rock types

   • Igneous
     • Intrusive
       • Granite
         • Granite landscape
           • Dartmoor
           • Tors
             • An isolated outcrop of rock on a hill
             • Formation
               • Stage 1 - spacing of vertical joints varies and influences effectiveness of weathering
               • Stage 2 - while underground, in a warmer and wetter climate, the closely spaced joints weathered rapidly compared with the zone of more widely spaced joints
               • Stage 3 - once exposed to atmosphere, erosion and mass movement removed broken granite, leaving behind largely unjointed granite. Tors continue to be weathered by physical and chemical processes
       • Formed by the cooling of magma within the Earth's crust
     • Extrusive
       • Basalt
       • Formed by cooled lava on the Earth's surface
     • Interlocking crystals, tough, resistant to erosion
   • Sedimentary
     • Chalk and clay
       • Chalk and clay landscape
         • Escarpment
         • Vales
         • Dry valleys
         • Springs
     • Limestone
       • Limestone landscape
         • Caves
           • Stalactites
             • Formed hanging from the roof
           • Stalagmites
             • Shorter and stubbier than stalactites. Formed on ground
           • Pillars
             • Stalactites and stalagmites join together
           • Curtains
             • Form when calcite is deposited over a wider surface when water flows over a rock face or in a crack in the wall
         • Gorges
           • Formed when underground caverns collapse
         • Limestone pavements
           • Bare rocky surfaces, blocky appearance. Clints (blocks) and grykes (cracks)
         • Swallow holes
           • Water flowing over adjacent impermeable rocks disappears down holes in the limestone
     • Layers, contains fossils, weaker
   • Metamorphic
     • Crystalline, layering, cleavage, very tough, resistant to erosion
     • Marble

Images and files in the map