thumb|right|Detail of the large limestone pavement in the Yorkshire Dales between [[Ingleborough and Pen-y-ghent.]]
thumb|right|Limestone pavement above [[Malham Cove]]
thumb|right|Limestone pavement on Zgornja Komna, [[Julian Alps]]
A limestone pavement is a natural karst landform consisting of a flat, incised surface of exposed limestone that resembles an artificial pavement. The term is mainly used in the UK and Ireland, where many of these landforms have developed distinctive surface patterning resembling paving blocks. Similar landforms in other parts of the world are known as alvars.
Formation of a limestone pavement
Conditions for limestone pavements are created when an advancing glacier scrapes away overburden and exposes horizontally bedded limestone, with subsequent glacial retreat leaving behind a flat, bare surface. Limestone is slightly soluble in water and especially in acid rain, so corrosive drainage along joints and cracks in the limestone can produce slabs called clints isolated by deep fissures called grikes or grykes They are also found in the Stora Alvaret in Öland, Sweden; in the Burren, County Clare, Ireland, the Great Northern Peninsula on Newfoundland, and in the Désert de Platé, in the French Alps.
See also
References
External links
- BBC Bitesize geography resource