This quarry is one of many quarries located in the area from Podgórki to Bolków, where Wojcieszów limestones were extracted.
Wojcieszów limestones are primarily composed of CaCO3, which is calcium carbonate (calcite). These rocks formed within the shallow part of a marine basin, where abundant light and oxygen facilitated the development of life. The skeletons of deceased organisms would settle on the basin floor, gradually transforming into rock over time. One of such organisms were archaeocyaths – small (typically 1-5 cm), now-extinct animals classified within the phylum Porifera, commonly known as sponges. They are the oldest organisms found in the Wojcieszów limestones. Due to their widespread distribution and short period of occurrence, they serve as a so-called index fossil, allowing for precise determination of the rock’s age. They allowed for determining the age of the deposition of Wapienie Wojcieszowskie to the early Cambrian period (approximately 541 million years ago).
During the Variscan orogeny, these limestones were submerged to great depths, where due to pressure and temperature, they underwent metamorphism and were transformed into marbles. Despite these processes, the Wojcieszów limestones clearly exhibit numerous primary structures that record diverse conditions within the sedimentary basin.
The quarry was established in one of several lenses of marbles located northwest of the Połom hill. The length of the lens in which the quarry is established is approximately 500 m, with a width of about 80 m. The marbles found here have a white or cream colour. At times, they exhibit not very distinct bedding. The marble layers have a thickness of up to 5 metres. The jointing is also clearly visible. In some places, the limestones are covered with a coating of brick-red or dark gray colour. The first of these is the so-called terra rosa, which is a product of chemical weathering of limestones in a terrestrial environment. On the other hand, dark colours are manganese compounds.
Both from the southern and northern sides, the limestones come into contact with greenstones. Within the greenstones, on the northern side, bodies of Wojcieszów limestones up to several metres in size are visible, which can be interpreted as xenoliths. Their origin is associated with lava flows that poured onto the limestones and, due to friction, detached fragments from them.
In the quarry, you can also observe karst phenomena. Going deeper into the quarry, in the northern wall, there is an entrance to a small cave with a length of 15 metres and a depth of 3 metres. The stalactite formations have unfortunately been destroyed, and their remnants lie among the rock fragments along the corridor. This cave belongs to the middle level of karst terrain, which is a remnant of a larger karst system. The cave was formed due to karst processes, which involve the dissolution of calcium carbonate by carbon dioxide-saturated water. In this process, the proper pressure and temperature of the water are also significant. As a result of the chemical reaction, limestone dissolves, forming bicarbonate ion (Ca(HCO3)2) in the presence of water and carbon dioxide: CaCO3 + H2O + CO2 ⇆ Ca(HCO3)2. When this reaction occurs in the reverse direction, calcium carbonate may precipitate from the solution, leading to the formation of features such as stalactites and stalagmites in caves.
