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| Protected Sites |
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| Bardon Quarry SSSI, Leicestershire |
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| Bardon Hill Quarry SSSI, Charnwood Forest,
Leicestershire, is important for its Precambrian volcanic rocks, which
form part of the Charnian Supergroup of Leicestershire. The rocks
of Charnwood Forest are believed to have formed in a volcanic arc
environment in late Precambrian times. At Bardon, the volcanic rocks
are interpreted as lava domes which intruded unconsolidated volcanically-derived
sediments on the sea floor. |
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| Bardon Hill Quarry is also notified as
an SSSI for the occurrence of mineralised quartz veins, containing
rare gold, and for copper-vanadium red-bed mineralisation, believed
to have formed during the Triassic. At this time, the Precambrian
rocks had already been uplifted to form a landmass and had been strongly
eroded, prior to deposition of Triassic sediments in a desert environment.
A spectacular unconformity between the Precambrian volcanics and Triassic
sediments, showing classic wadi features, is also exposed in several
parts of the site. |
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| The site is a large active quarry, owned
by Aggregate Industries UK Ltd. The company encourages educational
visits to the site by schools and universities, but prior arrangements
for visits should always be made. |
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The quarry is worked for the hard
Precambrian volcanic rocks, by blasting and excavation along a series
of wide terraces, by Aggregate Industries UK Ltd. |
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Unconformity between hard Precambrian
volcanic rocks (below) and sandy-coloured Triassic sediments at Bardon
Hill Quarry SSSI, Leicestershire. |
| Photos: Mick Murphy, Natural England. |
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