The Groeve Bovenste Bosch is a marl quarry and geological monument in Dutch South Limburg in the municipality of Gulpen-Wittem. The open-pit mine is located southwest of Epen near Terziet and Klein-Kullen, not far from the border with Belgium. The quarry is located on the eastern edge of the Bovenste Bosch forest, and further east, the Terzieterbeek rises lower on the slope.

The quarry is located on the eastern edge of the Crapoel Plateau and high on the southwestern slope of the Geuldal River valley.

The quarry is one of the few places where Beutenaken Limestone from the Gulpen Formation from the Upper Cretaceous is exposed. The Gulpen limestone in the quarry is soft, fine-grained, glauconitic, and white in colour. Light grey flints occur in the limestone, and fossils are found sporadically.

On top of the Beutenaken Limestone lie the Bovenste Bosch Horizont and the Vijlen Limestone, which are not exposed in the quarry. This limestone is also glauconitic but has a light grey colour. This limestone is locally very rich in fossils. At the bottom of the limestone layer lies the Upper Bosch Horizon, which is locally also fossil-rich in rostra of belemnites, the tail ends of squid-like creatures. The Bovenste Bosch quarry contains many of these fossils and is therefore called a belemnite cemetery.

On top of the Vijlen limestone and on the slopes of the Bovenste Bosch there is a thick layer of slope rubble of weathering loam and flint eluvium. This eluvium was created because layers of limestone containing flints were dissolved by the acids in the water, leaving only the flints behind.

Below the Beutenaken Limestone, the Slenaken Horizon and the Zevenwegen Limestone lie successively in the subsoil; about ten metres deep below the quarry bed lies the Zevenwegen Horizon and below that, the Vaals Formation.

Other Databases

Wikipedia:	https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groeve_Bovenste_Bosch
Wikidata ID:	Q69883012

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References