Geology and Mineral Exploitation
The oldest rocks found in the area, formed around 320 million years ago, are of the Carboniferous Period (including Millstone Grit, limestone and Coal Measures), when the region was tropical.
Carboniferous rocks in Europe generally consist of a repeated sequence of limestone and/or sandstone, shale and coal beds. The Carboniferous coal beds provided much of the fuel for power generation during the Industrial Revolution. (Another natural source of fuel in the area was peat, the neighbouring peat moors having started forming around 10,000 years ago).
The coal-field in the West Riding of Yorkshire (of which Sheffield was traditionally part) was one of the chief sources of mineral wealth in the region. Several types of coal were present in the county, from bituminous (ideal for domestic heating) to "Thick Coal", of a semi-anthracitic quality, appropriate for use in iron-smelting and in engine furnaces. Associated with the Upper Coal Measures were valuable iron ore deposits, occurring in the form of nodules. Large quantities of locally occurring fireclay were also exploited, as well as gannister (a clay used to make refractory furnace linings).
Read more about this topic: Geography Of Sheffield
Famous quotes containing the word exploitation:
“Communism is inequality, but not as property is. Property is exploitation of the weak by the strong. Communism is exploitation of the strong by the weak.”
—Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865)