Limestone is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of CaCO3. Limestone forms when these minerals precipitate out of water containing dissolved calcium. This can take place through both biological and nonbiological processes, though biological processes, such as the accumulation of corals and shells in the sea, have likely been more important for the last 540 million years. Limestone often contains fossils which provide scientists with information on ancient environments and on the evolution of life.
Oolite or oölite is a sedimentary rock formed from ooids, spherical grains composed of concentric layers. Strictly, oolites consist of ooids of diameter 0.25–2 millimetres; rocks composed of ooids larger than 2 mm are called pisolites. The term oolith can refer to oolite or individual ooids.
The Lincolnshire Limestone Formation is a geological formation in England, part of the Inferior Oolite Group of the (Bajocian) Middle Jurassic strata of eastern England. It was formed around 170 million years ago, in a shallow, warm sea on the margin of the London Platform and has estuarine beds above and below it. The maximum known thickness is 40.2 metres, at around TF9730, while four kilometres further west it is 18.3 metres thick at its outcrop in the upper Witham valley. It fades out in the south, around Kettering in Northamptonshire.
The Blisworth Limestone Formation is a geological formation primarily consisting of limestone deposited during the Bathonian stage of the Middle Jurassic, found in the Jurassic ridge which extends north and south through England. It was laid down in the shallows of the Jurassic sea and is part of the more widely defined Great Oolite Group. It was previously known as the Great Oolite Limestone, White Limestone and the Snitterby Limestone Formation. It is the lateral equivalent of the White Limestone Formation From the Jurassic ridge it extends eastwards below the later deposits and in the North Sea terminology, it is part of the West Sole Group.
Carboniferous Limestone is a collective term for the succession of limestones occurring widely throughout Great Britain and Ireland that were deposited during the Dinantian Epoch of the Carboniferous Period. These rocks formed between 363 and 325 million years ago. Within England and Wales, the entire limestone succession, which includes subordinate mudstones and some thin sandstones, is known as the Carboniferous Limestone Supergroup.
The Inferior Oolite is a sequence of Jurassic age sedimentary rocks in Europe. It was deposited during the Middle Jurassic. The Inferior Oolite Group as more recently defined is a Jurassic lithostratigraphic group in southern and eastern England. It has been variously known in the past as the Under Oolite, the Inferior Oolite, the Inferior Oolite Series and the Redbourne Group.
The Great Oolite Group is a Middle Jurassic stratigraphic unit that outcrops in southern England. It consists of a complex set of marine deposits primarily mudstone and bioclastic ooidal and fine grained limestone, deposited in nearshore to shelf settings. It is exposed at the surface as a variably thick belt extending roughly NE-SW from the coast of Dorset up to the Humber. It is also present at depth in the Weald and Wessex Basins, as well as offshore. Several of the constituent formations, notably the Taynton Limestone Formation and the Forest Marble Formation are notable for their fossil content, including those of dinosaurs and pterosaurs and some of the earliest mammals.
The geology of Rutland in eastern England largely consists of sedimentary rocks of Jurassic age which dip gently eastwards.
The Miami Limestone, originally called Miami Oolite, is a geologic formation of limestone in southeastern Florida.
Hunts Bay Oolite is an oolitic Carboniferous limestone geological formation found in the south Wales region. It is named after Hunts Bay on the Gower peninsula, south-south west of Bishopston, where a significant amount of the limestone forms the cliffs there.
The Pembroke Limestone Group is a stratigraphic unit of Courceyan to Brigantian age found in southern Wales and northern Somerset. It forms part of the Carboniferous Limestone Supergroup. These carbonate rocks developed in platform and ramp environments and are up to 1025m thick in places.
Finedon Top Lodge Quarry, also known as Finedon Gullet is a 0.9-hectare (2.2-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of Wellingborough in Northamptonshire. It is a Geological Conservation Review site revealing a sequence of middle Jurassic limestones, sandstones and ironstones, and is the type section for a sequence of sedimentary rocks known as the 'Wellingborough Member'. It was created by quarrying for the underlying ironstone for use at Wellingborough and Corby Steelworks; the ore was transported by the 1,000 mm gauge Wellingborough Tramway.
The Holkerian is a sub-stage of the Viséan stage of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) geological timescale. It is one of five sub-stages commonly used in the Viséan stage within stratigraphy by British, Irish and other geologists outside the US and Asia.
The Geology of Malta consists of a sequence of sedimentary rocks of late Oligocene to late Miocene age cut through by a set of extensional faults of Pliocene age.
The Coralline Oolite Formation is a limestone formation of Oxfordian age, found in the Cleveland Basin of North Yorkshire, England.
The geology of the Gower Peninsula in South Wales is central to the area's character and to its appeal to visitors. The peninsula is formed almost entirely from a faulted and folded sequence of Carboniferous rocks though both the earlier Old Red Sandstone and later New Red Sandstone are also present. Gower lay on the southern margin of the last ice sheet and has been a focus of interest for researchers and students in that respect too. Cave development and the use of some for early human occupation is a further significant aspect of the peninsula's scientific and cultural interest.
The geology of the North York Moors National Park in northern England is provided largely by a thick southerly dipping sequence of sedimentary rocks deposited in the Cleveland Basin during the Jurassic Period. A series of ice ages during the Quaternary period has left a variety of glacial deposits, particularly around the margins of the National Park.
Hood Hill is a small peak on the western side of the Hambleton Hills in North Yorkshire. The hill is 252 metres (827 ft) high, and is a layer of Coralline Oolite on top of sandstone. The hill is noted for being conically-shaped, and being part of the view westwards from Sutton Bank.
Crossgates Quarry is a disused limestone quarry in Crossgates, south of Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England.
