The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery logo   Enrich UK logo Stoke on Trent City Council logoNew Opportunities Fund and City of Stoke-on-Trent logos
 Home   Species   Habitat   Place   Map   Learning    Zone   Identifying rocks, minerals and fossils / Chalk
natural history page title
Identifying rocks, minerals and fossils

Introduction
What is a rock?
What is a mineral?
What is a fossil?
Rock, mineral or 
    fossil?

Rock key

     Sedimentary
     Rock colour 
         key

     Pale rock key
     Limestone
     Chalk
     Unknown pale 
         rock

     Dark rock key
     Clay
     Ironstone
     Coal
     Unknown dark 
         rock

    
    Igneous
    Metamorphic
    Unknown
Mineral key
Fossil key
Helpful Books

  
Chalk
PAGE 1 OF 1 
picture of a piece of uncut chalk

Your rock is probably a specimen of chalk. Chalk is a very pure limestone made up of tiny plankton fossils which formed in shallow, warm seas with high evaporation rates. Chalk is not found in the rocks of the Potteries area, but limestone, which is a similar type of rock,  can be found in parts of the Peak District.