Geology

Beer cliffs

At Beer there is a sudden appearance of Cretaceous chalk rocks along a part of the coast dominated by red Triassic rocks. This is to do with the structure of the rock layers in this area. Between Branscombe to the west and Seaton to the east there is a geological structure known as a syncline. Here, the layers have been gently deformed downwards to create a kind of saucer shape. The coast slices straight through the syncline and Beer is right in the middle. To the east of Beer there is also a fault. This means that instead of the layers of chalk gradually rising upwards again out of the syncline they are cut off by a large fracture with red Triassic rocks immediately on the other side. A good place to see this is at Seaton Hole.

The chalk itself formed in a tropical sea towards the end of the Cretaceous period about 70 million years ago. It is type of limestone made up almost entirely of microscopic skeletons of plankton.

Beer Quarry Caves

There is a particular layer in the chalk around Beer that in places has been quarried to use as building stone. It is very high quality white limestone that can be easily carved into complex shapes. A good place to see it in use is at Exeter Cathedral where many of the statues and carvings are made from Beer stone.

Beer Quarry Caves are open to the public and have a long history stretching back to Roman times when the stone first started being extracted.

source: http://www.jurassiccoast.com/