About 330 million years ago, warm seas deposited marine sediments in layers which became compressed to form limestone. This rock was later exposed, and was then eroded by ice and dissolved by rainwater to create the distinctive geological features we see today.
Look out for:
- distinctive areas of limestone pavement, which are often covered by woodland but are sometimes open with only a scatter of ferns, herbs and stunted trees
- low cliffs, which fringe the coast between Arnside and Silverdale
- cave systems which have developed through dissolving of the limestone in water (solution-weathering)
- exposed palaeokarst formations (a limestone landscape caused by dissolved areas of limestone, buried under later sediments)
- folding and faulting including the ‘Silverdale Disturbance’
- fossils, especially along the coast