Kalksteengroeve Midweg EarthCache
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This quarry is situated along the midweg, the road between Kunrade and Ransdaal. Coming from Kunrade it is located on the left side of the road, just after crossing the bridge over the A79.
This location was used to mine Limestone even before the Romans invaded the area. It was then used to fertilize the fields and meadows. Later, the limestone was burned to create mortar and plaster. The larger stones were used for buildingblocks. In the upper Cretaceous (Late Maastrichtian) (70 to 65 million years ago) this area was completely submerged by a tropical-like ocean. In this ocean, many plants and animals lived that are now extinct. The limestone that is visible here at this quarry, consists of numerous skeletons of plants and animals as well as coccoliths (calcareous nanoplankton). In this Cretaceous ocean, also larger animals were present like the 10 meter long Mosasaur. When looking carefully in between the overgrown parts of this area, you might find some fine creme colored, banded calcarenite. it is layered with harder compacter layers and softer levels. Silex is concentraded at the base. This sediment is typical for the Formation of Maastricht. The thickness of the Cretaceous layer varies between 5 and 20 meters. A few meters further from this quarry (At N50° 52.318 E005° 55.126) you will find an old industrial monument, a limeoven. It was used to burn the limestone to create the mortar and plaster. The questions to answer are: 1.) What temperature was the limestone burned at? 2.) What are the chemical formula´s of the remaining products after burning the limstone (CaCO3)? 3.) What did they do with the sugarbeets To log this cache you need to post 2 pictures: 1.) A picture of you in front of the quarry preferrably showing the sedimential area. 2.) A picture of you in, or in front of the oven.
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