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Limestone is a hard sedimentary rock and can create many different kinds offeatures. One example of a place where there is a lot of limestone features isMalham and The Yorkshire Dales National Park. This is a guide to help you

identify which features are which and a little extra information on how they areeach formed.

This map shows thelocation of Malham Cove inthe south of the Yorkshire

Dales and the YorkshireDales National Park wheremost of the limestonefeatures are situated.

In the following part of theguide it will be explainingall the different limestonefeatures and how they are

formed.

This is an example of a limestonepavement. Limestone pavementsare made up of clints and grykes.

Clints are solid slabs of limestonerock which make up the main

body of the limestone pavement.

Grykes are vertical cracks in

between the clints that have beenaffected by chemical weatheringmakin the r kes differ in size.

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A swallow hole is when rainwater has eroded the

limestone rock. This meansthat a stream that is

travelling over impermeablerock will quickly disappear

into the limestone. Theswallow holes can beseveral metres deep.

Resurgence is when a streamdisappears underground. The watertravels through a series of caves and

eventually reaches a level ofimpermeable rock. As the water

cannot pass through theimpermeable rock, it travels along it

until it reaches the surface as aspring.

Dry valleys were formed during the last

ice age. When the ice started melting,the valleys were carved out over the

frozen rock. As limestone is a permeablerock, when it thawed the water infiltrateddown leaving the dry valley above. Anexample of a dry valley is Watlowesvalley above Malham Cove in the

Yorkshire Dales.

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Gordale Scar was createdduring the ice age and overtime the gorge (right) andthe Gordale Scar waterfall

(far right) that you seetoday were formed. The

sides of the gorge hangover which suggests thatthere was once a roof that

has caved in due to theweight.

Malham Cove is about 260 feet

high and is made of carboniferouslimestone and was formed afterthe last ice age. Meltwater cutback the cove as it fell over theedge as a waterfall. This mainly

happened at the sides creating thecurved shape. On the top of thecove is a limestone pavement

which is explained above.

In the Yorkshire Dales the land is used for many different things, whether it isfarming or quarrying. The following will explain some of the land uses in the

Dales.

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The tourist board is encouraging peopleto use public transport to reduce air

pollution as 93% of the visits to theYorkshire Dales are made in cars

resulting in traffic problems for the locals.They are trying to stop people parkingtheir cars in spaces that block access,

especially to farmland.

Like most places, tourism is a vital part needed

by the Yorkshire Dales. Torism brings many jobsto the local people with an annual income of

50million. There is a large amount of touriststhat visit the area each year (estimated about8.3 million) which results in many problems forthe local community as although they obtain

jobs, it is very difficult to get anywhere becauseof the traffic problems.

In the Yorkshire Dales there is around19000 residents that mostly live in

small villages.Now there are more people buying

holiday homes in the Dales becauseof the luxurious scenery. Most of the

time these are used as holidayhomes so are used only a few times

a year.

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Farming has been an importantpart of the Yorkshire Dales for

centuries with 40% of the park landdevoted to farming. The park

encourages the farmers to farm in away that keeps the traditional lookfor example using stone buildings

to retain the natural look of thelandscape. A whole 35% of the jobsin the park rely on farming showing

how important farming is in theYorkshie Dales.

The Yorkshire Dales offers many sportsactivities: cycling, caving (right),

climbing and walking. The picturesquescenery and the countryside attracts

many tourists and hikers to the area.There is 1450km of paths around theDales. One of the most popular walksis the one up the three peaks and forthe more daring walkers, the pennine

way is a more challenging walk.

Quarrying is also another importantpart of the Yorkshre Dales.Nowadays there are 8 main

quarries with an annual output of4.7 million tonnes.