THE PEAK DISTRICT

HISTORY

• For 340 million year the Peak District was covered by warm shallow sea.
• There were several coral reefs.
• Over millions of years these creatures lived and died, to create a 600m bed of calcium carbonate.

GEOLOGY

• The calcium carbonate, created the rock found on the Peak District which is know as Carboniferous limestone.
• The sea also hosted volcanic activity and would pour lava across the sea bed, this cooled and made basalt.
• Silt, which came from the North was deposited into rivers and was compressed to form rocks.

GEOLOGY ...

• Some of the Peak Districts underlaying rocks are limestone, milestone grit and some shales. These are all quite porous rocks which help the formation of springs

ICE

• - One of the most recent occurrences in the Peak District was when the ice ages brought glaciers to carve out the vast valleys and hidden caves