Geology Site Account

Site name: Chalk Farm Lane Chalk Pit, Newport

Grid reference: TL 5234 3352

Brief description of site:

Disused chalk pit just east of Newport Station on the former access road to Newport Limeworks. The pit is overgrown but there a reasonable exposures of chalk.

Details:

Chalk is a special type of limestone formed on the floor of a tropical sea about 80 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. The Chalk Sea is thought to have covered most of northern Europe, the purity of the chalk being evidence that coastlines were then far away and sea level was very high. At this time the European continent had not yet separated from North America. Fossils of creatures that lived in the Chalk Sea have been found in the Chalk here but they are rare and difficult to spot.

The chalk is soft, white and blocky. There are widely-spaced courses of nodular flint and layers and oblique veins of tabular flint. Flint is an extremely hard, black form of quartz that originates from the skeletons of sponges that were dissolved by sea water and precipitated as mostly horizontal layers. Some fine flint nodules can often be seen on the floor of the quarry.