Cotswold Escarpment on Dovers Hill EarthCache
Hidden : 9/1/2012
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
2.5 out of 5

Size: Size: other (other)

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Geocache Description:


Dovers Hill
Dovers Hill is not only a place of beauty, wildlife (and sheep!) - but it's also a place of Geological interest - this EarthCache will share that with you, and will also take you on a short walk around Dovers Hill. Situated in the Cotswolds, the largest Area of Outstanding Beauty in Great Britain, Dovers Hill overlooks the vale of Evesham, and beyond towards Wales.

In the Cotswolds there are 19 landscape types - Dovers Hill forms part of the Escarpment - which runs from Uley to Cooper's Hill, and then over here to Dovers Hill, and finishing over in Mickleton. The escarpment is of a limestone formation.

This escarpment or scarp feature, sometimes called the Cotswold Edge, is a result of the uplifting (tilting) of the limestone layer, exposing its broken edge. This is a cuesta, in geological terms. With the characteristic uplift of the Cotswold Edge, reaching beyond Bath, towns such as Chipping Sodbury and Marshfield share elements of this Cotswold character.

Cuesta examples

Above is a cross section of three cuestas, dip slopes facing left, and harder rock layers in darker colors, as opposed to the softer ones


A cuesta is a ridge formed by gently tilted sedimentary rock strata in a homoclinal structure. Cuestas have a steep slope, where the rock layers are exposed on their edges, called an escarpment or, if more steep, a cliff. Usually an erosion-resistant rock layer also has a more gentle slope on the other side of the ridge known as a dip slope. The Cuesta found in the Cotswolds obviously isn't as major as some of the cuestas found around the world - however, exposed rock layers can be seen on part of the Escarpment in Lower Coscombe, and although not obviously visible here on Dovers Hill, rock can be seen under-foot as part of the formation of the hill, particularly the steep slope to the summit.

Moving on from cuestas, one thing that not many people know is that the rocks that form the Cotswold Escarpment are almost exclusively marine, and were formed mainly in warm tropical seas, much like those around Bermuda today. Plate tectonics has transported this part of the Earth's crust northward over the last 150-200 million years until we reached our present position.

There are two main types of sediment found in the rocks of the Cotswolds; the clastics and the carbonates. Clastics consist of particles of material eroded from rocks on land and transported by rivers wind and form the clays, muds and sands and can have a very wide distribution over the sea floor. The carbonates are generally produced by precipitation of calcium carbonate and by accumulation chemicals from dead organisms, what we call fossils, and form the limestones. These have a much narrower zone in which they form being restricted to shallow waters in a warm climate. The changes in the types of sediment give us a wealth of information as to the environment in which these sediments were deposited and close examination can provide a very clear picture of what the geography of the area was like at the time.

At the base of the Jurassic and making up the lower slopes of the Cotswold Escarpment are the clays, silts and sands of the Lias Group.
Periods and rocks found during them
This is a diagram of all the different rocks seen in the Cotswolds during different periods - if they are faded, it means no rocks have been discovered from those periods.

These were deposited on the floor of quite a deep ocean, but an ocean that occasionally shallowed to allow the formation of some limestones, such as the Marlstone Rock Bed. At the top of the Lias Group there is a change in sediment type as loose sand replaces the clays and silts; in fact, in the south of the region there is more sand than clay in its upper part.

Being right on the Cotswold Escarpment, Dovers Hill is a great location to go exploring to try and find these features described in the text above. This Earthcache will enable you to see some of them first hand, adapt what's been put in the text to answer questions at the two waypoints, and you'll even need to suggest why the steep slope up to the summit has been formed as you can see. And, this Earthcache will also take you on a short, but pleasant walk, below the slope, and then along the summit, where you'll enjoy far reaching views. There is plenty of parking available at the listed coordinates.


Dovers Hill

This Earthcache, and how to claim it:

Starting at the listed coordinates, you will find an information board. Look at the board, and answer the following questions:

 1) Where does the view of the Vale of Evesham span from? (location in the west and location in the east).
2) What did Captain Robert Dover do in 1612?

Then make your way along the paths, enjoying the views, until you reach the first waypoint: Describe the formation of the steep slope from left to right, at 180 degrees. Why could it have been formed in this shape?

Next, walk over to the final waypoint. Look beneath you:

1) Which type of rock is it? (Igneous, Sedimentary or Metamorphic)
2) Having read the information above, why do you think it's that type found here?
3) Examine the rock. Describe some simple features of it.
4) Why do you think this rock is found here, on this part of Dovers Hill?

Finally, follow the steps upwards and walk back to the original listed coordinates along the summit. Having experienced the rock, and examined the formation of the slope up towards the summit, to finish the logging requirements off, answer this question:

 Which period would the stones along Dovers Hill be from?

As an additional, optional, logging requirement, it would be nice to see...

 A photo of you and/or your GPSr at Dovers Hill

You must complete all the above logging tasks (other than the photo, that is optional) in order to log a "Found it" on this cache. Please e mail me the answers to the questions via this link, and then I'll email you back confirming whether your findings are genuine enough to log this Earthcache. If I see you log a "Found it", but receive no answers to the logging requirements, your log will be deleted without prior notice.

I hope you enjoy this Earthcache, and your walk, and good luck with your findings!



This Earthcache has been developed with the kind permission of the National Trust. Originally devised for the CacheWalker 5 Year Olympic Picnic event, held on the summit of Dovers Hill.

Additional Hints (No hints available.)



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