Moon's Hill Quarry
Also within
Condition (Natural England)
| Unit | Feature | Condition | Area (ha) | Assessed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ST660459 | — | Favourable | 3.79 | 2012-03-28 |
| ST667458 | — | Favourable | 3.79 | 2012-03-28 |
Geology & landscape
Geological Feature: Rock Outcrop · Mining / Industrial: Quarry · Geological Period: Silurian
Landscape processes: Volcanic / Igneous
Description
Area, 3.42 ha. 8.45 ac. Description Moon's Hill Quarry is situated within a Silurian Inlier located approximately 1km south of Stoke St Michael in the eastern Mendip Hills. The locality represents the most southerly known outcrop of Silurian strata in great Britain and the rocks occupy the core of an anticline with an east west trending axis and a southerly dipping axial plane. Quarrying at Moon's Hill has exposed a 300 to 400m thick sequence of andesites, rhyodacites, tuffs and agglomerates which are sandwiched between tuffaceous shales and mudstones. These clastic and volcaniclastic sediments have yielded a fairly rich, shelly fauna referrable to the Lower Wenlock Series Sheinwoodian Stage. This igneous suite represents the sole example of Wenlock aged volcanic rocks other than bentonites in England. In the British Isles only the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland otherwise affords such excellent exposures of volcanic rocks of Wenlock Age.