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Geodiversity
Economy and culture
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Where would we be without the Earth? It is easy to overlook the benefits that geodiversity provides for the region's economic life:
• soil for growing crops;
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the water supply, including bottled water
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building stone, such as flint, limestone and many other local rocks;
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lime for making cement, mortar and whiting
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lime for agriculture;
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sand and gravel for aggregates;
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clay for making bricks, pipes and tiles;
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silica sand for making glass;
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peat for growers' compost.
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The mineral extraction industry has made an impact on the region's landscape in many places.
This includes huge disused quarries like Barrington and Sundon, flooded gravel pits, as in the
Wensum and Lea valleys, chalk extraction tunnels and dene holes, and myriad local brick pits and
marl pits. These provide opportunities for wildlife as well as a reminder of local heritage. |
Modern sculpture using 5,000 year-old bog oak from the Cambridgeshire Fens. |
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A wall constructed of sawn blocks of Coralline Crag, at Wantisden, Suffolk |
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Quarrying chalk for agricultural lime at Great Wilbraham, Cambs. |
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Layer Marney Tower, Essex: an example of virtuoso Tudor architecture using bricks made from London Clay. |
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Quarrying Oxford Clay at Stewartby, Beds, c.1960. Until recently the London Brick Company's enormous pits and kiln chimneys were a feature of Marston Vale. |
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Graded gravel in the 20mm size range from Lafarge's quarry at Barham, Suffolk. This site exploits terrace gravels in the Gipping valley. |
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Chadwell chalk mine at Ware, Herts. Many districts with chalk bedrock are honeycombed with extraction tunnels and dene holes |
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In the past the region's geodiversity has contributed other mineral products to the economy.
These include fullers' earth for cleaning cloth and cat litter, clay for pottery, phosphatic
nodules (coprolites) for fertiliser, flint for tools and gunflints, peat for fuel, ironstone
for making iron. There was even a petroleum oil mine in Norfolk! |
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A disused kiln at Wattisfield, Suffolk. Local clays were fired by Watson Bros between 1814 to 1970 to make earthenware pottery |
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Flint was mined at Brandon, Suffolk, and knapped in huge numbers in the 18th and 19th centuries for firing flintlock guns. |
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Evidence of a 19th century fertiliser industry in Ipswich, Suffolk. Phosphate nodules ('coprolites') dug locally were processed here for export. |
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Geodiversity provides other
benefits we may take for
granted:
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the ground we stand and built our houses on;
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habitat for wildlife;
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water storage reservoirs;
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landscapes for leisure and tourism;
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burial facilities, including our waste in landfill and the dead;
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a source of information for science and education. |
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Geodiversity is the bedrock of our landscape, culture and economy. Products such as petrol, plastic, paint, metal and chemicals owe their origins to our Earth heritage. |
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Fishing on Aldeburgh beach, Suffolk. Offshore sand and shingle banks provide feeding grounds for bass, cod and sole. |
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The Stockgrove Discovery Centre, Luton: interpreting the local Gault Clay and Chalk stratigraphy. |
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Foxley Wood, Norfolk: an example of ancient woodland developed on chalky boulder clay soil. |
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Human settlement in context: a view across the suburbs of Luton towards the Chalk escarpment of Stopsley Common. |
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