scar-limestone

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A thick mass of calcareous rock frequently crowded with marine fossils, especially crinoids, corals, brachiopods, and various mollusks, forming the middle division of the Carboniferous limestone series: so called by English geologists because it forms scars or cliffs: same as mountain limestone (which see, under limestone). Of these scars the High Tor in Derbyshire is an excellent example. This has an escarpment of about 200 feet of bare rock, the summit rising to an elevation of 400 feet above the Derwent at its base. The scar-limestone is not the geological equivalent of the cliff-limestone of the western United States. Also called thick and main limestone.