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- Cornish Geology
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- Cornwall is classic ground to the geologist; nowhere in Britain has so much
- to offer to the mining student. The bulk of the country is underlain by
- Devonian and Carboniferous sedimentary and volcanic rocks, of great
- structural complexity and immense lithological interest.
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- Emplaced into these are the great granite masses which make up the rugged
- moorlands and mighty cliffs of the Land's End peninsula. Closely tied to
- the granites are the great hydrothermal lode systems, almost endless in
- their variety and the principal source of Cornwall's mineral wealth. In
- the south of the county is the ophiolite complex of the Lizard - another
- Mecca for geologists from all over the world. Much younger rocks, clays
- and sands and gravels of Tertiary and Pleistocene age - deposits which
- have also played a role in Cornwall's mining past - lie close to the
- School of Mines. Nowhere else in the British Isles can the students gain
- so much practical experience of metal mineralisation and industrial
- mineral deposits so close to the lecture theatre.