page_title: Matlock, Derbyshire
section_title: Geology
hierarchical_section_title: Matlock, Derbyshire / Geography / Geology
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Matlockit - Fundort: Cromford, Derbyshire, England - Ausgestellt im Mineralogischen Museum Bonn English: Matlockite - Locality: Cromford, Derbyshire, England - Displayed in the Mineralogical Museum, Bonn, Germany
context_page_description: Matlock is the county town of Derbyshire, England. It is situated at the south-eastern part of the Peak District, with the National Park directly to the west. The town is twinned with the French town of Eaubonne. The former spa resort of Matlock Bath lies immediately south of the town on the A6. The civil parish of Matlock Town had a population in the 2011 UK census of 9,543. The population of the wider Matlock urban area is approximately 20,000.
  Matlock is nine miles south-west of Chesterfield and in easy reach of the cities of Derby, Sheffield and Nottingham; the Greater Manchester conurbation is 30 miles away. Matlock is within the Derbyshire Dales district, which also includes the towns of Bakewell and Ashbourne, as well as Wirksworth. The headquarters of Derbyshire County Council are in the town.
context_section_description: The geology of the Matlock area is extremely complex.  Broadly speaking, the Derwent valley bottom forms a boundary between the sandstones and gritstones of the Dark Peak to the NE and the limestones of the White Peak to the SW.  There are igneous intrusions into the limestones to the SW.
  This geology has been exploited by the quarrying and mining industries.  The sandstones and gritstones have been quarried as building materials (e.g. at Bentley Brook Quarries) and the limestones for building materials and the manufacture of lime (e.g. at Harvey Dale Quarries).  The igneous intrusions gave rise to valuable minerals which have been mined (e.g. in the Bonsall area), particularly for lead. A very rare lead halide mineral called Matlockite was first discovered at nearby Bage Mine in the early 1800s, and is named after the town.
  The route of the River Derwent downstream (south) of Matlock is especially interesting to geologists in that it appears to have cut its way through a limestone gorge below High Tor (120m above river level), rather than follow the "simpler" way to the east.  It is thought that landslips and/or glaciation may have had an influence over how the present route of the river was established.
caption: Specimen of Matlockite in the Mineralogical Museum, Bonn
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