Limestone pavement

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Detail of the large limestone pavement in the Yorkshire Dales between Ingleborough and Pen-y-ghent. Limestone pavement.JPG
Detail of the large limestone pavement in the Yorkshire Dales between Ingleborough and Pen-y-ghent.
Limestone pavement above Malham Cove Limestone pavement above Malham Cove.jpg
Limestone pavement above Malham Cove
Limestone pavement on Zgornja Komna, Julian Alps Skraplje.jpg
Limestone pavement on Zgornja Komna, Julian Alps

A limestone pavement is a natural karst landform consisting of a flat, incised surface of exposed limestone that resembles an artificial pavement. [1] The term is mainly used in the UK and Ireland, where many of these landforms have developed distinctive surface patterning resembling paving blocks. [2] Similar landforms in other parts of the world are known as alvars.

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Formation of a limestone pavement

Conditions for limestone pavements are created when an advancing glacier scrapes away overburden and exposes horizontally bedded limestone, with subsequent glacial retreat leaving behind a flat, bare surface. Limestone is slightly soluble in water and especially in acid rain, so corrosive drainage along joints and cracks in the limestone can produce slabs called clints isolated by deep fissures called grikes or grykes [2] (terms derived from a northern English dialect). If the grykes are fairly straight and the clints are uniform in size, the resemblance to man-made paving stones is striking, but they are not necessarily so regular. Limestone pavements that develop beneath a mantle of topsoil usually exhibit more rounded forms.

Notable examples

Limestone pavement on Orton Scar, Cumbria, England Orton Scar Limestone Pavement.jpg
Limestone pavement on Orton Scar, Cumbria, England

Limestone pavements can be found in many previously glaciated limestone environments around the world. Notable examples are found in the Yorkshire Dales and Cumbria in Northern England, such as those above Malham Cove, on the side of Ingleborough, and above Grange-over-Sands. [3] They are also found in the Stora Alvaret in Öland, Sweden; in the Burren, County Clare, Ireland, the Great Northern Peninsula on Newfoundland, [4] and in the Désert de Platé, [5] in the French Alps.

See also

Related Research Articles

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Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant rocks, such as quartzite, given the right conditions. Subterranean drainage may limit surface water, with few to no rivers or lakes. In regions where the dissolved bedrock is covered or confined by one or more superimposed non-soluble rock strata, distinctive karst features may occur only at subsurface levels and can be totally missing above ground.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sinkhole</span> Geologically-formed topological depression

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alvar</span> Limestone-based biological environment

An alvar is a biological environment based on a limestone plain with thin or no soil and, as a result, sparse grassland vegetation. Often flooded in the spring, and affected by drought in midsummer, alvars support a distinctive group of prairie-like plants. Most alvars occur either in northern Europe or around the Great Lakes in North America. This stressed habitat supports a community of rare plants and animals, including species more commonly found on prairie grasslands. Lichen and mosses are common species. Trees and bushes are absent or severely stunted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mesa</span> Elevated area of land with a flat top and sides

A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a more resistant layer or layers of harder rock, e.g. shales overlain by sandstones. The resistant layer acts as a caprock that forms the flat summit of a mesa. The caprock can consist of either sedimentary rocks such as sandstone and limestone; dissected lava flows; or a deeply eroded duricrust. Unlike plateau, whose usage does not imply horizontal layers of bedrock, e.g. Tibetan Plateau, the term mesa applies exclusively to the landforms built of flat-lying strata. Instead, flat-topped plateaus are specifically known as tablelands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Burren</span> Glaciated karst landscape region in northwest County Clare, Ireland

The Burren is a karst/glaciokarst landscape centred in County Clare, on the west coast of Ireland. It measures around 530 square kilometres (200 sq mi), within the circle made by the villages of Lisdoonvarna, Corofin, Gort and Kinvara. The area includes such natural features as Mullaghmore hill and Ailladie cliffs, and historic monuments such as Poulnabrone dolmen and Caherconnell Stone Fort. The Burren National Park covers a small part of the Burren and is the smallest of the six National Parks in Ireland, while the adjacent territory, including the Cliffs of Moher, is included in the Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inishmaan</span> Island off Galway coast, Ireland

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turlough (lake)</span> Type of seasonal or periodic lake found in limestone areas of Ireland

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glaciokarst</span>

Glaciokarst is a geological term that refers to a specific type of karst landscape that been influenced significantly by past glacial activity. Karst landscapes consist of distinctive surface and subsurface landforms. These landforms are a result from dissolution of soluble rocks like limestone, gypsum or dolomite by water. In the case of Glaciokarst, the karst landscape has been shaped by the action of glaciers due to glacial erosion, deposition or other processes that directly impact the soluble rocks in the area.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carboniferous Limestone</span> Limestone deposited during the Dinantian Epoch of the Carboniferous Period

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mushroom stones</span>

Mushroom stones, or mushroom rocks, in Ireland are limestone boulders undercut by past weathering regimes. These rocks take the form of solitary sentinels of limestone which still bear the unmistakable marks of long-continued erosion by ice, soil or lapping waves at the edge of lakes which have since vanished or retreated. These stones are sometimes shaped like mushrooms, others have an overhang facing in just one direction, but all are notched and undercut in such a fashion as to suggest prolonged exposure to standing water at some time in the past. The mushroom-shaped stones are produced where the notching forms a fairly even circle around the stone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gettlinge</span> Village in Mörbylånga Municipality, Sweden

Gettlinge is a village in the southwest portion of the island of Öland, Sweden. It is known for its impressive Viking stone ship burial ground. Gettlinge is situated on the western fringe of the Stora Alvaret, a World Heritage Site designated by UNESCO. The site is readily visible from the perimeter highway, Route 136. Gettlinge, as most prehistoric burial sites on Öland, is established on the low-lying ridge, described by Hogan as a geological formation of thickened soil in this alvar region of otherwise extremely thin soil mantle. This ridge was one of the few places on the southern part of the island that had sufficient soil depth for creation of burial mounds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tessellated pavement</span> Relatively flat rock surface that is subdivided into more or less regular shapes by fractures

In geology and geomorphology, a tessellated pavement is a relatively flat rock surface that is subdivided into polygons by fractures, frequently systematic joints, within the rock. This type of rock pavement bears this name because it is fractured into polygonal blocks that resemble tiles of a mosaic floor, or tessellations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barren vegetation</span> Area of land where plant growth may be limited

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Asby Scar</span> Limestone pavement in Cumbria

Great Asby Scar is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and National Nature Reserve in Cumbria, UK. It is an area of limestone pavement, south of the village of Great Asby.

The geology of the Yorkshire Dales National Park in northern England largely consists of a sequence of sedimentary rocks of Ordovician to Permian age. The core area of the Yorkshire Dales is formed from a layer-cake of limestones, sandstones and mudstones laid down during the Carboniferous period. It is noted for its karst landscape which includes extensive areas of limestone pavement and large numbers of caves including Britain's longest cave network.

References

  1. Introduction - Limestone Pavement Conservation Archived 2008-06-30 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 2008-06-29
  2. 1 2 Anon. "Geology and geomorphology". Limestone Pavement Conservation. UK and Ireland Biodiversity Action Plan Steering Group. Archived from the original on 7 August 2011. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
  3. Anon. "Where to visit a limestone pavement". UK and Ireland Biodiversity Action Plan Steering Group. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
  4. "The "Limestone Barrens" of the west coast of the Island of Newfoundland, Canada, constitute an ecosystem at risk". Limestone Barrens Habitat Stewardship Program. 30 June 2018. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  5. Geology - Refuge de Platé Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 2010-08-09