Numerous scientists from the early 19th century up to the present day have studied the area and it is a popular field site for universities around the UK.

The classic terms 'Bunter' and 'Keuper' have now been abandoned, and the formations now recognized in the UK Triassic sequences, constitute three major stratigraphic units: In order to maintain an understanding of earlier work, the older names with appropriate cross references are used in places.

In other places particles of blue and brown were collected in nodules of various sizes and imbedded along with pebbles in the sand rock like currants in a pudding."

In 1882, Ormerod in his book The History of Cheshire[4] describes it as follows: "Alderley Edge is an abrupt and elevated ridge, formerly the site of a beacon, which bears the appearance of having been detached by some great convulsion of nature from the range of the Macclesfield hills.

The sides are varied with cultivated land, wood and rock; and the entire mass presents a striking object to all the surrounding district over which it commands a most extensive prospect."

Analogues for cemented cataclastic faults, which can compartmentalise reservoirs, are well displayed by the arrays of deformation bands within the Alderley outcrops.

The Chester pebble beds to the south of Alderley represent material deposited in alluvial fan or braided river system.

[7] The finer sediments of the Wilmslow and Helsby Sandstone to the west of Alderley represent alluvial deposits of low sinuosity channels.

Within the Alderley conglomerates, there are well rounded liver coloured quartzite pebbles from a source found only in the Variscan mountains of Brittany, France.

There is further evidence from the distribution of the pebbles themselves, the average size of the stones on the southern margin of the basin is noticeably larger than that to the north, which is consistent with a flow of water from the south.

This Budleighensis river system is evident by a series of sandstones with generally northwards directed palaeocurrents, which can be traced along a south to north line along the central parts of Britain.

It is clear that more locally sourced material such as carboniferous limestone and reworked earlier Triassic sandstone from the Clent Formation just south of Birmingham were also important components of the river systems as they flowed northwards giving some indication of the relief of the basin margins.

Towards the end of the Triassic, the sea level once again rose and periodic flooding caused by high spring tides and strong on-shore winds led to the formation of on shore saline lagoons or sabkha environments.

[9] Intense evaporation from these lagoons resulted in the precipitation of a carbonate-sulphate complex and the thick halite beds as seen to the south west of Alderley in Northwich where the salt is mined commercially.

Interest in the area took off with vigour in the mid-19th century with the first real efforts made to quantify the strata of the country using the new mapping methods that geologists like William Smith had pioneered.

Mottling in the red blocky mudstone is of two main types, The ferruginous colour pigmenting is finely disseminated over the surface of individual grains and accounts for a very small percentage of the rock.

The majority of the lower Triassic clastic sediments originated from a Variscan source area in northern France with minor local input.

The upper parts of the district is characterised by massive posts of medium to fine sandstone up to 6 m thick separated by chocolate coloured shales which are micaceous.

The basal conglomerate is cut into sections by the faults and can be traced in a general eastwards direction from the village to the hill top 3 km away.

... A more definite statement cannot be made since the ore is exposed on the sides of the workings only and has not been "blocked out", the system in the past having been to follow the richest ... impregnation while leaving the poorer rock standing".

[citation needed] This statement is as true today as when written the distributions of the ore bodies and the fine dissemination makes accurate quantitative analysis difficult.

[11] Further to the economics are the facts that most of the area is owned by the National Trust and it is designated by Government as a SSSI (Site of Special and Scientific Interest) for its geological value[12] Baryte has varied usage and is a valuable mineral.

[14] A few kilometres to the west and further over towards the Triassic outcrops of the Wirral, where conditions were drier, footprints and track ways of insects and small vertebrates, including Rhynchosaur and Chirotherium, have been identified.