The geology of the Peak District National Park in England is dominated by a thick succession of faulted and folded sedimentary rocks of Carboniferous age.
The scarp and dip slope landscape which characterises the Dark Peak also extends along the eastern and western margins of the park.
There has been extensive mineralization of faults associated with volcanism during Visean times; working of the veins concerned has been a significant industry within the White Peak and has left an often prominent legacy in the landscape.
Quarrying of limestone for aggregate and for the chemical industry has also caused considerable landscape change, not least around Buxton and resulting in a sizeable area being excluded from the national park on its designation in 1951.
Some remain active such as the famous Mam Tor slip whilst those at Alport Castles have resulted in dramatic landforms.
Coal Measures rocks of the late Carboniferous are found overlying the Millstone Grit sequence in parts of both the eastern and western margins of the national park.
The overlying succession characterises the larger part of the limestone outcrop which gives rise to the White Peak stretching south from Winnats Pass.
[3] They include: Knoll-reefs occur along the northern margin of the limestone outcrop from Barmoor northeast to Winnats Pass and east from there towards Bradwell, continuing south from that village.
The gorge sections of the Hamps and Manifold valleys incise the Ecton Limestone Formation and associated knoll-reefs to a point just downstream of their confluence.
Numerous areas of head,[12] a mass movement deposit, are mapped across the district, composed of clay, silt, sand and gravel.
The floors of major valleys are characterised by alluvium and river terrace deposits, notably those of the Derwent, Wye, Dove and Manifold.
Most quarries work the Bee Low Limestones as to the east and south of Buxton; the boundary of the national park has excluded these areas since its designation in 1951.
The copper ore, chalcopyrite was formerly mined at Ecton in Staffordshire whilst zinc-bearing sphalerite was worked elsewhere[15] The Neogene pocket deposits described above have been exploited for the production of fire bricks.