Little Solsbury Hill stands in a dominant position overlooking the River Avon, the Fosse Way and the A4 northeast of Bath. There are fine views (on a clear day) of most of the country around Bath, all the way to Devizies in the east, Westbury and Bratton to the south, and to King Alfred’s Tower and the Mendips in the southwest. Little Solsbury is an isolated hill with a slightly domed top, steep approaches on all sides and open views of most of the surrounding country, the approach by car is fairly steep and on single track lanes.
Solsbury hill is formed from a variety of layers of sedimentary rocks from the Jurassic period. Like the Cotswold plateau to the north, the summit is formed from rocks of the Chalfield Oolite Formation. The oolite together with the Fuller's Earth Formation which underlies it, forms a part of the Great Oolite Group of rocks of Bathonian age. Beneath these are, successively, Bajocian age limestones of the Inferior Oolite Group and sandstones of the Bridport Sand Formation. The last-named unit forms a part of the Lias Group of rocks of Toarcian age. Beneath all of these is the relatively thick Charmouth Mudstone Formation sequence rising from the edge of the valley floor alluvium. Great oolite is the prominent rock type forming the summit and outcrops that can be observed in the disused quarries along the western and northern slopes.
The underlying geology of the hill has created this amazing limestone grassland. This area has not been improved through any agricultural practice and the Yellow meadow ant hills are evidence of this. The grassy mounds show that the site has not been ploughed for at least 50 years. At waypoint 1 there in an information board giving more detail of the wildlife that call this hill home.
There are good exposures of the rock type in the quarries previously mentioned above. On the plateau above the quarry there are two isolated blocks of oolitic limestone, the slab of rock located at waypoint 3 has a number of interesting striations. There is a spring line along the 170 metre contour on the northern and eastern slopes and the active springs indicate there is a perched water table. There is some evidence of a landslip on the northern slope where a large area of bedrock appears to have slumped. The eastern and southern slopes also have some signs of landslip, probably the consequence of the small scale quarrying in the form of stone pits that has occurred in the past.
To log this Earth cache please answer the following questions:
Waypoint 1 - What are the examples of plant species for this limestone grassland?
The information board is currently awol, please describe the surface here and research online what plants are at home on this soil type?
Waypoint 2 - Describe the rock surface at this point, how many layers on the largest area of exposed rock?
Waypoint 3 - Describe the top face of the rock slab and how it differs from the rock below
Please do not post your answers or any photos showing the answers in your log, click on my profile at the top of the page to send them to me. Feel free to post any photos that do not answer any of the questions!
| I have earned GSA's highest level: |
 |