Geology on Öland

Geology on Öland

- An exciting history spanning almost 600 million years. On Öland, from north to south, visitors can get imaginative peeks into the island's exciting geological history. In the quarries with their mighty rock edges, you can observe the development and the time when clay grains and lime silt began to build up the Öland sequence of layers with its content of octopuses and other prehistoric animals. Each millimeter of limestone represents 1 years!

In several places, small superficial rock quarries, scour walks and scouring works bear witness to the stone's importance for the islands throughout the ages. When Linné visited the island in 1741, he was concerned that the work of the common people in "rock and wood chips" took time away from other important tasks. Even today, limestone is quarried and refined at several industries on the island, and stone handling is considered one of the island's basic industries.