Rumney Quarry
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Geology & landscape
Mining / Industrial: Quarry · Geological Period: Silurian
Description
Description Rumney Quarry is a small disused quarry situated in a residential area of east Cardiff. It is a very important site for the interpretation of the disposition of land and sea in mid-Silurian times. This site provides the best exposure of the Silurian Rumney Grit, which is considered to belong to the oldest part of the Homerian Stage of the Wenlock Series. The coarse clastic facies displayed here, together with the fauna which is dominated by bivalves and gastropods (and which also contains non-vascular plant remains), indicate a near-shore situation. In consequence, Rumney's rocks have been interpreted as having been deposited near to the shoreline at the southern margin of the Welsh marine basin. The shallow-water deposits in the quarry are important for the palaeogeographical and palaeoenvironmental interpretation of the configuration of the Welsh Basin in late Wenlock times. The site is also the type locality for several bivalve and gastropod species erected by Sollas.