{"id":2817,"date":"2012-03-09T16:49:02","date_gmt":"2012-03-09T16:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.martley.org.uk\/?page_id=2817"},"modified":"2012-03-09T17:17:18","modified_gmt":"2012-03-09T17:17:18","slug":"geology-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.martley.org.uk\/?page_id=2817","title":{"rendered":"Geology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction to the Geology of Martley and the Teme Valley in Worcestershire
\n<\/strong>Martley parish lies along and to the east of the River Teme in west Worcestershire. \u00a0The river is a SSSI along its whole length from where it rises in the Kerry Hills in Wales to where it joins the River Severn just south of Worcester.\u00a0 By curious chance the geology of the parish is exceptionally varied and unique in southern Britain.\u00a0 No fewer than seven distinct geological periods, spanning 700 million years of time are to be found within our boundaries.\u00a0 The jewel in the crown, Martley Rock, now a developed visitor site, exhibits five periods in an area approximately 60m x 15m.\u00a0 At this old gravel pit, first recorded by Sir Roderick Murchison in 1839 and set in beautiful countryside with lovely views to the north, there are interpretation boards and leaflets to help explain what is on view.\u00a0 On display here is the most northern exposure of Malvern Complex (Pre-Cambrian ) rock (age +-700Million Years), Cambrian Quartzite (age est\u2019d 500MY), Silurian (Raglan Mudstone 418MY, Carboniferous (Halesowen Formation Coal Measures, 308MY) and Triassic (230MY).<\/p>\n

A fault of great significance in the shaping of the current landscape over many hundreds of millions of years, theEast Malvernfault, runs through the Martley Rock site.\u00a0 Visitors can see this dividing line between Silurian aged rocks and to the east, the red Triassic, itself a common feature in the region, with outcrops and much used as a building material.<\/p>\n

Other locations in the parish provide very good exposures of Permian Breccia (270MYa), a rubble left over from the erosion of high mountains to the north, and limestone of Silurian age filled with fossils.<\/p>\n

In the Teme valley, only 2-3 miles from Martley, is one of the largest exposures in the country of Travertine rock, often known as Tufa, laid down in the valley since the last ice age.\u00a0 Tufa deposits form from the evaporation of water that contains a high degree of dissolved calcium carbonate, itself the result of slightly acid rain falling on our hills, permeating the limestone and dissolving it.\u00a0 The process continues today and is easily visible at this deposit.<\/p>\n

At similar distance, there is an igneous intrusion (dolerite) that forced its way into cracks in the surrounding Silurian mudstone.\u00a0 This site is known as the Brockhill Dyke and because of the very high temperature of the igneous, its heat affected the rocks that it came into contact with.\u00a0 This is known as a chilled margin and is a fine example, well worth seeing, along with onion skin weathering of the igneous outcrop.<\/p>\n

There is coal in the TemeValley, with many hundreds of bell pits and shafts a few miles north of Martley, operating until the 1970\u2019s.\u00a0 In the parish there are tales of coal mining (very poor quality and quantity) on Berrow Hill and on the hill there are two or three depressions–putative coal pits–from ages ago.<\/p>\n

The Martley Geology Project<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Teme Valley Geological Society was formed in 2011 and successfully secured funding as part of the LEADER programme, to develop the unique geology that exists in the parish of Martley.<\/p>\n

The project work is:<\/p>\n