Faxe kalkbrud

We cycled the 6KM to the town of Faxe, to see the quarry. Now this is not an ordinary quarry, it is the world's only fossilised coral reef. It dates from 63 million years ago, 'just' after the meteorite impact which destroyed much of life on earth (including dinosaurs), which was 65 million years ago.
The coral reef was 300m under the sea level and of course there were many creatures living in the reef, ranging from small molluscs to sharks. These fossilised with the reef and today the limestone teems with little fossils. The quarry is actively mined, but you can go into a non-working part and be free to look for fossils. They also organise guided walks into the quarry, with a geologist who shows you what to look for and gives a bit of a background to the area but also to whatever it is you happen to find. As part of the tour you even get a hammer and chisel!

Here are some pictures:





The dispersed chalk dust in the lakes, gives them a blue or turquoise colour. The more recent lakes contain the most calcium dust and are more vividly coloured.






In this close up you can see the coral structure clearly.






One 'fossil' looking for others?






In this piece of 'rock', you can see a snail. As the snail grew inside a piece of coral, it did not 'curl up' like the snails we know do. Lyn actually found a piece a bit similar to this but discarded it. At that stage we did not know what to look for. That's why it is worthwhile to have the geologist with you. We do have an imprint of a small crab and a small mollusc on board.