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Faulted Limestone

Castlemore Quarry, Crookstown, County Cork

This rock records the life of an active fault where limestone (formed in a warm tropical sea 340 million years ago) has been repeatedly fractured and mineralized during earthquake events.

Fracturing can be seen on some faces as grey fragments cemented together by a cream-coloured mineral, dolomite. In other areas, cavities in the limestone contain saddle-shaped crystals of dolomite and prismatic crystals of aragonite. The ‘rusty’ brown areas of the rock testify to the movement of oxidised iron and manganese-rich solutions through the fault.

The stone is quarried by Roadstone Wood for a variety of purposes at Castlemore Quarry, near Crookstown, County Cork.

School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences

An Scoil Eolaíochtaí Bitheolaíocha, Domhaneolaíocha agus Comhshaoil

Distillery Fields, North Mall, University College Cork, Ireland , T23 N73K.

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