Breedon Hill

Breedon Hill forms one of the most prominent features in the landscape of north-west Leicestershire, standing up 50 m above the surrounding ground. That it has been a major landmark throughout recorded history is suggested by its name, which is derived from the Celtic ‘bre’ and the Anglo-Saxon ‘dun’, both words meaning ‘hill’. Viewed from the east, the rugged vertical western quarry face is crowned by the church that looks very precarious; it stands about 70 m behind the quarry face, but looks much closer from a distance. To see the quarry and its geology at relatively close quarters, the viewing platform at the north end of the quarry should be visited. There is also a footpath that follows the quarry’s eastern rim. Quarry visits are limited to organized groups, but a few small exposures are present along the footpath from Breedon village up the western slopes of the hill

Assessing the potential for reopening a building stone quarry : Newbigging Sandstone Quarry, Fife

Newbigging Sandstone Quarry in Fife is one of a number of former quarries in the Burntisland- Aberdour district which exploited the pale-coloured Grange Sandstone from Lower Carboniferous rocks. The quarry supplied building stone from the late 19th century, working intermittently from 1914 until closure in 1937, and again when reopened in the 1970s to the 1990s. The stone was primarily used locally and to supply the nearby markets in the Scottish Central Belt. Historical evidence indicates that prior to sandstone extraction, the area was dominated by largescale quarrying and mining of limestone, and substantial sandstone quarrying is likely to have begun after the arrival of the main railway line in 1890. It is probable that removal of the sandstone was directly associated with limestone exploitation, and that the quarried sandstone was effectively a by-product of limestone production. Sandstone extraction was probably viable due to the existing limestone quarry infrastructure (workforce, equipment, transportation) and the high demand for building stone in Central Scotland in the late 19th century. The geology within Newbigging Sandstone Quarry is dominated by thick-bedded uniform sandstone with a wide joint spacing, well-suited for obtaining large blocks. However, a mudstone (shale) band is likely to be present within a few metres of the principal (north) face of the quarry, around which the sandstone bed thickness and quality is likely to decrease. The mudstone bed forms a plane sloping at a shallow angle to the north, so that expansion of the quarry in this direction is likely to encounter a considerable volume of poor quality stone. Additionally, an east-west trending fault is present approximately 100 metres north of the quarry face, which is also likely to be associated with poor quality (fractured) stone

Study of rock displacement with the help of equivalent materials using room-and-pillar mining method

Field study made with the help of equivalent materials to determine minimum dimension of interchamber and barrier pillars and limiting chamber span was carried out. Modeling was made for gypsum quarry

Strumble-Preseli ancient communities and environment study (SPACES); Sixth report 2007-08

This paper reports the results of field surveys and geophysical surveys in the eastern Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire, Wales, together with petrological descriptions of rock samples taken from key outcrops and quarry sites

Extractive Strategies at Peoria Quarry, Ottowa County, Oklahoma

The Peoria Quarry complex was first recognized as representing prehistoric activities by geologist Walter P Jenny in 1891. Jenny, who was studying the zinc and lead mines in southwestern Missouri and adjacent areas, made collections from the Peoria extractive area and submitted these specimens along with an introductory letter to Mr. G. K Gilbert of the United States Geological Survey. The latter contacted William H. Holmes, who visited the location in late October of that year (Holmes 1894:7-8). Prior to the evaluation of Jenny, the site was referred to as old Spanish mines because the local populace could not attribute such extensive digging to prehistoric peoples. Some early accounts of the Peoria Quarry area greatly exaggerated the vertical and horizontal extent of excavations. For example, Nieberding mentions that John P. McNaughton visited these mines in 1877 and concluded that at least 500 to 1000 men must have been engaged in digging pits over an extended period of time in a 40 acre area. According to McNaughton, some of the shafts were 250 to 300 feet in depth, and it amazed him that the pits apparently had been excavated using stone tools. He did not mention the great quantities of lithic debitage which surrounded each pit Holmes, while admitting that digging at the site had been extensive, estimated that chert had been extracted from an area of no more than four or five acres and stated that the greatest depth of pits in 1891 was about five feet. He did mention that a few trenches of 100 feet or more in length could be found along the margins of the site, but stated that most evidence of digging consisted of round pits up to 40 feet in diameter. His sketch map depicts the approximate extent of quarry pits and associated workshop areas

Detection of nanoseismic events related to slope instabilities in the quarry district of Coreno Ausonio (Italy)

Le cave per l’estrazione di materiale roccioso rappresentano contesti in cui possono aver luogo eventi di instabilità gravitativa causati dalle continue sollecitazioni cui sono soggette le pareti produttive, principalmente connesse alle vibrazioni dovute alle esplosioni necessarie alle operazioni di disgaggio. La necessità di gestione del rischio da frana per la salvaguardia del personale impegnato nell’attività estrattiva ha portato, nel tempo, alla richiesta di attivare sistemi di monitoraggio nelle aree di coltivazione mineraria e di cava. Nel presente lavoro il monitoraggio nanosismometrico, una tecnica di geofisica passiva recentemente sviluppata per le indagini di microsismicità, è stato impiegato nel distretto di cave a cielo aperto di Coreno Ausonio (in provincia di Frosinone). Il monitoraggio nanosismometrico consente l’individuazione e la localizzazione di deboli eventi sismici, fino a magnitudo locale (ML) nell’ordine di -3, attraverso l’impiego di quattro sensori sismometrici disposti secondo una specifica geometria di array detta SNS (Seismic Navigation System). Dopo aver individuato una cava in cui erano programmate esplosioni per la volata delle pareti in roccia, nel corso del 2013 sono state organizzate 3 campagne di acquisizione durante tre giornate, pianificate in modo da monitorare l’area in un periodo compreso da qualche ora prima dell’esplosione alle 24 ore successive. Su una parete della cava non più produttiva è stato effettuato un rilevamento geologico-tecnico che ha permesso di individuare 4 principali sistemi di discontinuità e caratterizzarli in termini di giacitura, resistenza, rugosità, apertura, spaziatura e condizioni idrauliche secondo gli standard ISRM (1978). L’analisi di stabilità della parete in esame, tenuto conto della sua orientazione, ha restituito una scarsa propensione ad eventi di instabilità. Analizzando mediante il software NanoseismicSuite i dati sismometrici acquisiti è stato possibile ottenere i “supersonogrammi”, ovvero particolari spettrogrammi auto-adattanti alle variazioni del rumore sismico di fondo, dai quali sono state definite alcune caratteristiche specifiche di forma d’onda per diverse tipologie di eventi. In base ai supersonogrammi, è stato possibile individuare e localizzare 15 esplosioni, di cui 3 provenienti dalla cava di riferimento e 12 da cave adiacenti del distretto, e 27 deboli eventi di instabilità gravitativa, distinti in 23 eventi di collasso e 4 rotture legate alle fratturazione dell’ammasso roccioso. Le 3 esplosioni avvenute nella cava di riferimento, e quindi aventi coordinate di origine nota, sono state utilizzate per calibrare il modello di sottosuolo, successivamente impiegato per localizzare gli altri eventi registrati. Le rotture sono risultate originate in diverse zone del distretto estrattivo, mentre gli eventi di collasso sono stati localizzati in una specifica area e risultano essere avvenuti prevalentemente in un limitato intervallo di tempo a seguito delle 9 esplosioni registrate nella campagna del 26-27 luglio 2013. Non è stato possibile, invece, individuare eventi riconducibili ad instabilità negli orari di attività di cava a causa dell’elevato livello di rumore apportato dagli strumenti per l’estrazione e la lavorazione del materiale roccioso. Si è escluso che gli eventi di collasso fossero riconducibili direttamente all’attività di estrazione sia perché registrati al di fuori dell’orario di lavorazione delle cave sia perché, analizzando l’intera registrazione per intervalli orari, le frequenze tipiche dei macchinari di lavorazione non sono risultate energizzante. La zona di origine è risultata essere un’area nella quale sono stati rinvenuti detrito sciolto costituito da blocchi eterometrici ed una parete non in coltivazione con medesime caratteristiche delle discontinuità rispetto alla parete sulla quale era stato effettuato il rilevamento geologico-tecnico, ma con diversa orientazione. In definitiva, la fase di sperimentazione ha restituito dei risultati di indubbio interesse consentendo di mettere in evidenza alcune limitazioni del monitoraggio nanosismometrico nel contesto preso in esame, in particolare legate all’eccessiva rumorosità registrata nelle ore di attività di cava. La tecnica appare, comunque, un utile strumento di monitoraggio per i fenomeni gravitativi di debole intensità, in grado di contribuire alla gestione del rischio da frana in aree ad elevata attività antropica ed in ambienti naturalmente predisposti ad instabilità gravitative che possono interessare pareti in roccia.Nanoseismic monitoring is a passive geophysical technique used to identify and locate weak seismic events (down to local magnitudes, ML, around -3). This technique was applied in the open-pit quarry district of Coreno Ausonio (central Italy) to detect possible gravity-induced slope instabilities resulting from quarry rock blasting. After identifying an active quarry, an engineering-geological survey was carried out to characterise the jointed rock mass on an abandoned wall in front of the quarry. Four main joint sets were surveyed and their geometric and mechanical properties were measured in order to carry out stability analyses that evidenced scarce proneness to failure of the investigated wall. The analysis of seismic records obtained during three monitoring surveys, performed through the NanoseismicSuite software, made it possible to detect and characterise 15 blasts, of which 3 from the reference quarry and 12 from nearby quarries within the district, as well as 27 weak slope instability events (23 collapses and 4 failures). While failures originated from different areas of the quarry district, collapses occurred in a site characterised by an abandoned quarry having a wall more prone to gravity-induced instabilities than the one previously characterised

Gold and palladium as indicators of an extraterrestrial component in the Cetaceous/Tertiary boundary layer at Woodside Creek and Chancet Quarry, Marlborough, New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Earth Sciences at Massey University

It is widely believed that a large meteorite approximately 10 km in diameter impacted Earth at the termination of the Cretaceous Period with cosmic velocity, vaporising itself, along with a greater mass of the terrestrial target rocks into a cloud of hot rock vapour. The vapour cloud condensed into particles of sand to clay size at high altitude before returning to Earth to form a worldwide layer marking the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary. Chemical evidence from this boundary layer suggests that the impactor was a chondritic meteorite, enriched in the platinum group elements compared to the Earth's crust. An enrichment of these elements above their background crustal abundances to approximately 0.1 of the chondritic abundance has been observed in a number of Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary layers worldwide. Iridium is the platinum group element traditionally used as an indicator of the extraterrestrial component (ETC) in likely impact layers due to its rarity in the Earth's crust and low detection limits possible using neutron activation analysis methods. Neutron activation analysis is however expensive and requires specialist facilities, this thesis proposes that the elements gold and palladium can also be used to indicate the ETC in the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary layer. Samples from two Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary sites, Woodside Creek and Chancet Quarry, were analysed for gold and palladium using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. A strong correlation was found between iridium, gold, and palladium abundances at these sites, with all showing enrichment at precisely the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary in proportion to iridium, indicating a common origin for all three elements. Gold showed almost precisely the expected 0.1 of its chondritic abundance in the clay size fraction at both Woodside Creek and Chancet Quarry (15 ng/g). Palladium showed exactly 0.1 of its chondritic abundance at the Chancet Quarry boundary with 53 ng/g. Gold abundances on the boundary at Woodside Creek (55 ng/g) and Chancet Quarry (44 ng/g) showed excellent agreement with published values as did the palladium result for Woodside Creek (22 ng/g)

Macaca sylvanus Linnaeus 1758 from the Middle Pleistocene of Quecchia Quarry (Brescia, Northern Italy)

During the Plio-Pleistocene the Barbary macaque, Macaca sylvanus Linnaeus, 1758 was widely distributed throughout Europe and North Africa (Szalay and Delson, 1979; Delson, 1980; Rook et al., 2001), and it became extinct in Europe during the Late Pleistocene (Elton and O’Regan, 2014). Nowadays this primate is still present in North Africa and a small population has been reintroduced at Gibraltar (Modolo et al., 2005). The taxonomy of the Plio-Pleistocene European macaques is still debated but many authors agree in considering all the fossils as belonging to the M. sylvanus lineage, while the Pleistocene endemic M. majori Azzaroli, 1946 from Sardinia (Italy) has been considered a distinct valid species (Rook and O’Higgins, 2005). The occurrence of this species is documented from Late Pliocene to Late Pleistocene sites located in Northern and Central Italy. Here we describe unpublished dentognathic remains of Macaca sylvanus from the Middle Pleistocene site of Quecchia Quarry (Botticino, Brescia, North Italy)

The building stones and slates of Killin : an investigation of stone for the built heritage

The village of Killin lies in an area of dramatic landscape and mountain scenery. The use of local stone in the buildings gives a direct connection to this landscape and reflects the local geology, comprising mostly metamorphic rocks of Precambrian age –dominantly limestone, meta-sandstone, mica schist and meta-igneous rocks. All of these (with the exception of the Loch Tay Limestone which was used for soil improvement) were used in buildings and structures within the Killin Conservation Area. The stone masonry in the village is classified into five categories; (1) cottages (mostly harled) built of random rubble from field and river boulders and surface rock outcrops, (2) two storey buildings with irregular coursed rubble walls of meta-sandstone and mica schist with large dressings of silver-grey slabs of actinolite schist, (3) and (4) larger late 19th century buildings with dressings of Central Belt sandstone used in combination with squared rubble walling of local actinolite schist and metasandstone. The 5th masonry category represents relatively late buildings constructed using distinctive imported stone types (e.g. whinstone, granite, red sandstone). These categories are broadly chronological in order and reflect the development of architectural form along with improving transportation of materials over time