Quarrying and building Stone

Carbonate sedimentary rocks are widely used as building and ornamental stones and so are familiar to many of us where they have been used to construct iconic buildings or provide flooring or tiling for hotels and offices around the world. They are also widely used in less visible ways as a raw material for cement, as well as aggregate and roadstone for many large engineering projects. One of the most common building stones in the UK is Portland Stone, which is extracted on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. It was used to build St Pauls Cathedral and Buckingham Palace in London as well as commercial buildings in Liverpool and Manchester.

Lincoln Cathedral, constructed from the Jurassic (Bajocian) aged Lincolnshire Limestone Formation

Elsewhere, limestone was the local building stone for cathedrals – for example, the Jurassic aged Lincolnshire Limestone was used to build Lincoln Cathedral. The mineralogy, grain size and volume of pore space of the rock is extremely important in governing the strength and resistance of the rock to physical and chemical weathering and building stone remains in demand for repairs and also extensions and modifications to stone masonry.

Freshwater Bay, Isle of Portland, where Portland stone is quarried

Freshwater Bay, Isle of Portland, where limestone is quarried for building stone

Perhaps more importantly, carbonate rocks are a critical raw material for more conventional building construction and road-building. Huge quarries across the country, particularly in North Wales, Derbyshire and Yorkshire, extract limestone for use as the primary raw material for cement, as well as processing it to form lime that is then supplied to the iron and steel industry and agricultural manufacturers. It is also used in the manufacture of paint, glass, plastics and pharmaceuticals. Chalk, a very fine grained limestone, is used for similar purposes. A significant volume of limestone is also used as aggregate, for example for road construction.