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Loftus Quarries Mini Geo-Trail

Looking west through Loftus Quarries with Cattersty Cliff in the background.

Make your way across the beck and follow the Cleveland Way up the steep, stepped path and then eastwards where there is a view of the Old Gut dock (marked 1 on the plan). Pass the path down to the shore at NZ 725 198 and North Warren Cottage (Tile Sheds). (2 cisterns (2) are missed unless one deviates along the coastal path). At NZ 735 197 fork left off the Cleveland Way to go down the track in to the quarries.

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May 2011 – Frosterly Marble

Frosterly Marble containing numerous fossil corals. Image: Carole Rushall.

Frosterley Marble is a dark grey to black limestone which has been used as an ornamental stone locally and internationally in churches and buildings such as Durham Cathedral.

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Hummersea Mini Geo-Trail

View the geomorphology of this area (much of which has now been donated to Tees Valley Wildlife Trust. The scarp line of Saltwick Sandstone is set back from the coast and is paralleled underground by the subcrop of the Cleveland Ironstone Formation (see the geological map). The, therefore, deep embayment is infilled by till that is much landslipped on the seawards side. The Snailah Ponds, still shown on modern maps, are said to have been infilled by material from Boulby Potash Mine development.

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Hart Quarry

Blank. For now.

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February 2010 – Evaporites

Evaporites are non-clastic, or chemical sediments, created through the precipitation of dissolved salts from water. They most frequently occur at the site of a former large water body such as a lake or landlocked sea, on coastal plains (sabkha zones), or where rivers feed very arid desert areas. As the water involved slowly evaporates the [...]

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January 2010 – Siderite

Iron carbonate (FeCO3), or siderite from the Greek sideros meaning iron, is a major source of ore for steel-making being usually low in sulphur and phosphorous, and high in manganese and/or magnesium.

This mineral is able to assume almost any colour but commonly brown, yellowish-brown, or grey specimens can be found. It occurs in Britain’s [...]

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October – Mica

The name mica is thought to derive from the Latin word, micare – “to glitter”. This no doubt refers to the brilliant sparkle when light is reflected and refracted by this mineral.
More correctly, the Mica Group of minerals are sheet silicates. This means that instead of growing as a large crystal they form in [...]

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September – Whinstone

Whinstone is a quarryman’s term for a variety of hard, dark-coloured, rocks including basalt and chert. Here, in the Tees Valley and Cleveland, the name refers to a hard rock that is very different from the soft sedimentary strata which make up the majority of the area’s underlying geology.

Around 58 million years ago, as [...]

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August – Asbestos

During his now-infamous journey to the Orient Marco Polo is said to have been amazed when, following meals with wealthy Persians, the tablecloths were cleaned by exposing them to fire the cloths surviving the ordeal without a mark. The fibres from which the cloths were woven came to the Persians from the Hindu Kush, and [...]

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June – Alum Shale

Alum Shale occurs within the upper 35 metres or so of the Whitby Mudstone Formation. A suite of rocks that originated as soft sediment accumulating on the floor of an ancient sea (the Tethys) which occupied this area between c.188 million and c.182 million years ago during the late Lower Jurassic phase of Earth’s geological [...]

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