Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
FIG
169.
Old and new cathedral buildings in the city centre of Coventry mark its bombing
during World War II, reflecting the industrial importance of the city. (Copyright Dae Sasit-
orn & Adrian Warren/www.lastrefuge.co.uk)
The two examples of the Carboniferous Landscape represented in Area 9 have
rather different geology. In the case of the westernmost, South Staffordshire area (
A1
),
the structure is dominated by an upfold. The core of this upfold is a fault-bounded strip
of Ordovician Lickey Quartzite that has been eroded into the distinctive narrow ridge
of the Lickey Hills (Fig. 170). This quartzite consists of quartz sand grains, themselves
strongly cemented together by later growths of quartz, which make it very resistant
to the processes of weathering. The quartzite is the result of an Ordovician episode
(roughly 480 million years ago) when the sea flooded across central England, which
had, at that time, been weathered and eroded into a very flat landscape. Repeated storm
wave activity during this flooding resulted in sand that was unusually rich in pure
quartz grains. These grains later became a tough, erosion-resistant quartzite upon buri-
al by further sediment and cementation.
FIG
170.
Diagrammatic cross-section across the top edge of Area 9 (located on Fig.
168).
