Cove Quarry
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Cove Quarry by Anne Burgess as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Cove Quarry
Image: © Anne Burgess Taken: 23 May 2009
This quarry exploits the Rottington Sandstone Member of the St Bees Sandstone Formation, which is of Triassic age, and belongs to the New Red Sandstone. It has been used all over Britain, for example in Ashby Castle at Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Stag Place Piazza in London as well as in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Large quantities of the stone were shipped to North America as ballast and used in various buildings on the eastern seaboard, including the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York. The red colour implies that it was laid down in a desert environment. The lower part of the quarry is dominated by sheet sandstones interbedded with red mudstones with desiccation cracks, probably deposited as a terminal fan system on a semi-arid ephemeral playa-mudflat. It grades upwards into thicker beds and the mudstone proportion decreases. Eventually it evolved into a large braided fluvial system, and it is recognised across the Irish Sea basin.
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Image Location
Latitude
55.028276
Longitude
-3.167921