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Chalk mine near Scotia, Nebraska Open pit chalk quarry near Quidhampton, England. Chalk mining is the extraction of chalk from underground and above ground deposits by mining. [1] Mined chalk is used mostly to make cement and bricks. Chalk mining was widespread in Britain in the 19th century because of the large amount of construction underway ...
Barrington Chalk Pit is a 97.1-hectare (240-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest near Barrington in Cambridgeshire. [1] [2] It is a Geological Conservation Review site. [3] This large quarry is the only surviving exposure of the Cretaceous Cambridge Greensand. Fossils include brachiopods and fish teeth.
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The caves were used between 1830 and the 1860s for producing lime. The 25-inch to a mile (approx 1:2,500) Ordnance Survey map of 1862–63 describes the place as a "chalk pit" and marks an "engine house" and two remaining kilns. [9] A further investigation produced, among other evidence, a letter from the son of one of the workers. [10]
Burning chalk stone was performed in simple kilns in close proximity to where the chalk was found. Lime kilns were made by digging a round hole, three metres wide, two and a half metres deep. After the hole was dug, the chalk and fuel for a fire would be brought to it. Stones of chalk (limestone) would be arranged in a circular dome in the pit.
This disused chalk pit exposes a series of phosphate-rich chalk layers deposited 80 million years ago, during the Upper Cretaceous, under a warm sea which then covered a large part of Europe. The sediments provide evidence of severe earth movements in the area [ 185 ] and they are rich in macrofossils , especially belemnites .
Footholds were cut into the sides of the shaft to allow people to climb in and out. The shaft, when the chalk is reached, widens out into a domed chamber with a roof of chalk some 3 feet thick. The walls frequently contract somewhat as they near the floor. As a rule the main chamber is 16 to 18 feet in height, beneath each shaft.
The exposed chalk is a block displaced by an ice sheet which once covered the area. On the northern boundary and just inside the county, at the foot of the chalk Chiltern Hills, near Tring and Ashwell, there is a small strip of exposed Cretaceous Gault Clay and Upper Greensand. At 100 million years old, these are the oldest rocks in the county.