page_title: Gotland
section_title: Geology
hierarchical_section_title: Gotland / Geography / Geology
caption_attribution_description: Langhammars,Gotland,Aug 2009
context_page_description: Gotland is Sweden's largest island. It also is a province, county, municipality, and diocese. The province includes the islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the north, as well as the Karlsö Islands to the west. The population is 58,595, of which about 23,600 live in Visby, the main town. The island of Gotland and the other areas of the province of Gotland make up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area.
  The island's main sources of income are agriculture, food processing, tourism, information technology services, design, and some heavy industry such as concrete production from locally mined limestone. From a military viewpoint, it occupies a strategic location in the Baltic sea. As of 2018 the Gotland Regiment has been re-raised and it is the first time since World War II that a new regiment has been established in Sweden.
context_section_description: Gotland is made up of a sequence of sedimentary rocks of a Silurian age, dipping to the south-east.
  The main Silurian succession of limestones and shales comprises thirteen units spanning 200 to 500 m (660 to 1,640 ft) of stratigraphic thickness, being thickest in the south, and overlies a 75 to 125 m (246 to 410 ft) thick Ordovician sequence.
  It was deposited in a shallow, hot and salty sea, on the edge of an equatorial continent. The water depth never exceeded 175 to 200 m (574 to 656 ft), and became shallower over time as bioherm detritus, and terrestrial sediments, filled the basin. Reef growth started in the Llandovery, when the sea was 50 to 100 m (160 to 330 ft), and reefs continued to dominate the sedimentary record. Some sandstones are present in the youngest rocks towards the south of the island, which represent sand bars deposited very close to the shore line.
  The lime rocks have been weathered into characteristic karstic rock formations known as rauks. Fossils, mainly of crinoids, rugose corals and brachiopods, are abundant throughout the island; palæo-sea-stacks are preserved in places.
caption: Rauks at Langhammars, Fårö
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