Seaham Quarry
Seaham Quarry is significant to the history of Australian geology and its associations
with the famous Australian geologist, Professor Edgeworth David who first
recognised the glacigene origin of the Carboniferous sediments in the Seaham area
in 1914.
The Historical notes on the Seaham Quarry state:
The glacigene origin of the Carboniferous sediments in the Seaham area was first
recognised by Professor Edgeworth David in 1914. Subsequently Sussmilch (in
Sussmich and David, 1920) reported the occurrence of varved shales in the Seaham
Quarry, which rapidly gained famed in Australia and internationally because of the
perfection of preservation of the varves and the associated contorted beds exposed
in them. David exhibited specimens of the varved shales in Honolulu in 1920 at the
First Pan Pacific Science Congrss, and three years later led a party of visiting
scientists to the quarry on the occasion of the Second Pan Pacific Science
Congress. In 1925 a signboard describing the phenomena exposed in the quarry
was erected in the site. The site was transferred onto the State Heritage Register on
2 April 1999.
Go to: http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/07_subnav_02_2.cfm?itemid=5045417
1. On a map of NSW locate the Seaham Quarry.
2. Who was Professor Edgeworth David? Write a profile on this man suitable for
inclusion in an Australia Who’s Who book.
3. Describe “varved shales”.
4. How old are the shale deposits at Seaham Quarry? (300 million)