Limhamns kalkbrott (''

Limhamn Limhamn () is, in an administrative sense, the southern district of Malmö Municipality in Sweden. Before 1915, Limhamn was (briefly) a town of its own. The population of Limhamn-Bunkeflo (including suburbs) is 31,000, of which 7,000 live in t ...

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

quarry'') or Kalkbrottet (''the limestone quarry'') is situated near

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

, in the borough of

Limhamn-Bunkeflo Limhamn-Bunkeflo was a city district () in the west and south of Malmö Municipality, Sweden. On 1 July 2013, it was merged with Hyllie, forming Väster, Malmö, Väster. In 2012, Limhamn-Bunkeflo had a population of 42,646 of the municipality's ...

Malmö Municipality Malmö Municipality (), or City of Malmö (''Malmö stad''), is a Swedish municipality in Skåne County, the southernmost of the counties of Sweden (and conterminous with the historical province (''landskap'') of Scania). The central city is ...

Skåne County Skåne County ( ), sometimes referred to as Scania County or just Scania in English, is the southernmost Counties of Sweden, county, or , of Sweden, mostly corresponding to the traditional Provinces of Sweden, province of Scania. It borders th ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. The present quarry was opened in 1866 but there was a predecessor already in the 1600s. The quarry is one of the largest

open-pit mines Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique that extracts rock (geology), rock or minerals from the earth. Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially ...

in Northern Europe, measuring 1300 by 800 meters, with a depth of 65 meters. A railway line connected the quarry to a cement factory in the port of

. In 1968 about two kilometers of the railway was placed in a tunnel to reduce

air pollution Air pollution is the presence of substances in the Atmosphere of Earth, air that are harmful to humans, other living beings or the environment. Pollutants can be Gas, gases like Ground-level ozone, ozone or nitrogen oxides or small particles li ...

. Mining of limestone in the quarry ceased in 1994. Pumping that is maintained to this day prevents the quarry from turning into a lake.https://malmo.se/Kultur--fritid/Idrott--fritid/Natur--friluftsliv/Natur--parker/Naturreservat/Limhamns-kalkbrott.html (in Swedish) The industries were torn down for housing developments in the 2010s. The open pit is a municipal nature reserve since 2011, notable for one of very few populations of the

European green toad The European green toad (''Bufotes viridis'') is a species of true toad found in steppes, mountainous areas, semi-deserts, urban areas and other habitats in mainland Europe, ranging from far eastern France and Denmark to the Balkans, Western Ru ...

remaining in Sweden.

Gallery

References

Neighbourhoods of Malmö Quarries in Sweden {{Skåne-geo-stub