Limestone Scenery and Features

The Yorkshire Dales National Park is the third largest of the National Parks of England and Wales. It is known for its outstanding scenery and diversity of wildlife and habitats.

The limestone pavement slabs are known as Clints weathering forms this remarkable feature as water trickles down the joints and dissolves the limestone this is how the blocks know as Clints are formed. The gaps in between are called Grykes.

   

Grykes

Clints

A swallow hole is a depression in the ground which is especially found in limestone and is formed by solution or by collapse of a cavern roof.

Watlowes dry valley is a u-shaped valley that runs north-south from the top of Malham Cove. Dry valleys, valleys with no rivers in them, are common in limestone areas as rivers disappear below ground to flow through underground caves. The valley was formed at the end of the last Ice Age when the ground was frozen and the usually porous limestone was made impermeable.

Malham Cove is a huge 80 meter high round shaped limestone cliff. It towers over the surrounding landscape.  The Cove is the product of a great number of natural processes that have acted over many thousands of years. Earth movements millions of years ago caused the land below Malham Cove to drop down, This produced a massive vertical cliff. Since this time The Cove has been shaped by natural processes into a semi-circular shape.

Gordale Scar is a very impressive long, vertical sided gorge with 70-80 meter high cliffs. A very small stream flows through the gorge but it is obvious that a stream of this size could not possibly be responsible for eroding this massive scenery. A stream did erode the limestone to form this but it must have been a much larger and more powerful one than the one flowing today.

The landscape and scenery around the village of Malham in the Yorkshire Dales is one of the most interesting in the UK. The limestone geology of the area and millions of years of earth movements and erosion have been responsible for producing towering cliffs, deep gorges, impressive valleys, beautiful waterfalls and unusual limestone pavement. This spectacular scenery attracts over a million visitors a year. This is a big attraction to tourists.Also the land is impermeable, which is good for preventing erosion and defense mechanisms. This is why many prisons are built out off limestone rocks.