Geology, bats and cheese

摘要

Monsted Kalkgruber, west of Viborg, in northern Jutland, Denmark, claims to be the largest limestone mine complex in Europe. The mines, originally worked over 1000 years ago to make the lime mortar used in church buildings (following the Danish conversion to Christianity), were at their peak in 1860. The lime was later used for industrial and agricultural purposes before the mines closed in 1953. These spectacular mines, cut into limestone (Danian Chalk) and pushed to the surface by an underlying salt diaper, are now owned by Skov-og Naturstyrelse, Denmark's state nature conservation group and are open to the public (Fig. 9) and used in a number of innovative ways.