Culm Measures

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Culm Measures

The Culm Measures are a geological formation of the Carboniferous

Carboniferous

The Carboniferous is a geologic period that extends from the end of the Devonian period, about 359.2 ? 2.5 annum , to the beginning of the Permian period, about 299.0 ? 0.8 Ma ...
period that occur in south-west England

England

Devon

Devon is a large Counties of England in South West England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, but that is an entirely unofficial name, rarely used inside of the county but often indicating a shire....
and Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall , constitutional Duchy and palatine, is a metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England of England, United Kingdom, located at the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain....
. They are so called because of the occasional presence of a soft, sooty coal, which is known in Devon as culm.

The majority of the formation consists of shale

Shale

Shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clay minerals or muds. It is characterized by thin laminae breaking with an irregular curving fracture, often splintery and usually parallel to the often-indistinguishable bedding plane....
s and thin sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-size mineral or rock Particle size . Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust ....
s, but there are also occurrences of slate

Slate

Slate is a fine-grained, foliation , homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcano ash through low grade regional metamorphism....
, limestone

Limestone

File:Limestone Formation In Waitomo.jpgLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geology record....
and chert

Chert

Chert is a fine-grained silica-rich microcrystalline, cryptocrystalline or microfibrous sedimentary rock that may contain small fossils. It varies greatly in color , but most often manifests as gray, brown, grayish brown and light green to rusty red; its color is an expression of trace elements present in the rock, and both red and green ar...
.

"Culm grassland" on the formation's slates and shales is composed of purple moor

Moor

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Encyclopedia

The Culm Measures are a geological formation of the Carboniferous

Carboniferous

England

Devon

Cornwall

Shale

Sandstone

Slate

Limestone

Chert

Moor

Moor may refer to:*an ethnic or racial designation, from Latin Maurus "of North Africa"**Moors, people of North Africa and Al-Andalus**Sri Lankan Moor, a minority ethnic group of Sri Lanka...
grass and rush pasture. It is noted for a wide diversity of species, some extremely rare including the Marsh Fritillary

Marsh Fritillary

The Marsh Fritillary is a butterfly of the Brush-footed butterfly family.The Marsh Fritillary is in decline in Europe and one of 11 butterflies covered by the United Kingdom Biodiversity Action Plan....
butterfly. Some 92 percent of culm grassland has been lost in the past 100 years, 48 percent being lost between 1984 and 1991 alone. There are a number of organisations trying to halt the decline including Devon Wildlife Trust

Devon Wildlife Trust

The Devon Wildlife Trust is a member of The Wildlife Trusts partnership covering the county of Devon, England. It is a registered charity, established in 1962 as the Devon Naturalists Trust, and its aim is to safeguard the future of the county's urban, rural and marine wildlife and its environment....
with its Culm Natural Networks project and Butterfly Conservation.