The Malvern Line or Malvern Lineament is the name applied to a north-south aligned lineament which runs through the Malvern Hills of western

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

and extends southwards towards

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city i ...

and northwards past Stourport. It consists of a series of faults and

folds Benjamin Scott Folds (born September 12, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and composer, who is the first artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Kennedy Center in ...

which have the effect of bringing old Malvernian rocks to the surface. Being largely hard

igneous Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma o ...

rocks, the

Malverns Complex The Malvern Hills are in the English counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and a small area of northern Gloucestershire, dominating the surrounding countryside and the towns and villages of the district of Malvern. The highest summit affo ...

rocks have resisted

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is di ...

better than those of the surrounding countryside and result in a striking line of hills of which the Malvern Hills are the most impressive. The Abberley Hills to their north also form a part of this lineament. This line is considered to mark the edge of two

terrane In geology, a terrane (; in full, a tectonostratigraphic terrane) is a crust fragment formed on a tectonic plate (or broken off from it) and accreted or " sutured" to crust lying on another plate. The crustal block or fragment preserves its ow ...

s - two once separate fragments of the Earth's crust now joined as one - the Wrekin Terrane to the west and the

Charnwood Terrane Charnwood may refer to: County of Leicestershire, United Kingdom * Borough of Charnwood, a local government district in the county of Leicestershire, England ** Charnwood Borough Council elections * Charnwood (ward), an electoral ward and admini ...

to the east.British Geological Survey 1:50K map sheets 182 'Droitwich', 199 'Worcester', 216 'Tewkesbury', 234 'Gloucester'

References

{{reflist Plate tectonics Structural geology Geology of England