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Geological Formations

Brimham Rocks

Erosional and Karst Formations

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Brimham Rocks is a 183.9-hectare Site of Special Scientific Interest and Geological Conservation Review site on Brimham Moor in North Yorkshire, England, about 8 miles northwest of Harrogate within the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, managed by the National Trust and visited by around 175,000 people a year. Its rocks are Millstone Grit sandstone, specifically the Lower Brimham Grit, medium to coarse-grained rock deposited 318 to 317 million years ago during the Kinderscoutian substage of the Bashkirian stage as river-borne sand in a delta environment. Over roughly 100,000 years spanning the period before, during and after the last ice age, glacial action, weathering and water erosion shaped the sandstone, with wind-carried ice and sand particles carving the rocks into fantastic shapes, some of them developing the characteristic mushroom forms visible today through selective erosion. This entity documents Brimham Rocks specifically as a geological formation, a Millstone Grit sandstone outcrop sculpted into distinctive shapes by roughly 100,000 years of glacial, wind and water erosion.

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