Kent's wonderfully varied scenery reflects a long history of geological and landscape evolution.
The rocks that we find at the surface are of Cretaceous and Tertiary age (from about 140 to 50 million years ago). They are a thick sequence of sands, clays and limestones gently folded into an upfold (anticline) known as the Weald Dome. Erosion has removed the highest parts of the dome so that we see the oldest sandstones of the High Weald exposed in its centre whilst younger chalks of the North and South Downs form its outer rim. |
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A Geological Map of Kent and South East England. |
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Classification of the rocks of South-East England.
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The thirty RIGS designated by the end of 2005 provided good coverage of the rock types in Kent, especially Ragstone, with some Gault Clay, Sand and River Gravel sites, but only a few Chalk sites. However, the rock type most commonly associated with Kent is Chalk. This is probably because of the North Downs and the famous cliffs at Dover and Folkestone which are SSSIs.
When planning its programme of work for 2006 therefore, the Kent RIGS Group decided to concentrate on inland Chalk to supplement the SSSIs. |
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