Geology of Cheshire
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The Geology of Cheshire consists mainly of Triassic sandstones. To the north west of Cheshire, these sandstones are heavily faulted and the underlying Carboniferous Coal Measures are thrown up. Around the areas of Poynton and Macclesfield, the coal is close to the surface and was easily mined. The mid to east area forms the Cheshire Basin. This fault bounded graben structure was flooded on several occasions in the Permian and early Triassic periods resulting in the laying down of massive halite (salt) beds. Thes beds have been mined both by cavern working and hot water brine extraction for over 200 years mainly in the area around Northwich. The collapse of these worked out halite beds has given rise to one of Cheshires' noted features, the Cheshire Meres.
