Rock types found around Malham Tarn House as shown in the building stones and fireplaces.

SEDIMENTARY ROCKS

A rock formed by the accumulation of weathered material such as sand, mud, silt, pebbles and fragments of animals and plants which become fossils. Often deposited in layers in rivers, deltas, seas and in deserts, where they are compressed and cemented together to form rocks.

METAMORPHIC ROCKS

These are rocks that have been altered by heat and/or pressure into a new, much harder rock with the same chemical composition but without melting. For example mudstone can become slate and limestone into marble.

IGNEOUS ROCKS

These rocks crystallise when hot magma (molten rock) rises near the Earth’s surface and cools. When cooling slowly large crystals have time to form. When erupting on the Earth’s surface, fast cooling occurs and the crystals are small. There are no igneous rocks in Malham Tarn House. The nearest igneous rocks are nearly 50 miles away in the Lake District.

MAN MADE ‘ROCKS’

These include clays which have been baked to form bricks or tiles and concrete made from limestone.