Mount Saint Peter is a ridge running north to south between the valleys of the Geer

Jeker

The Jeker is a river in Belgium and the Netherlands. It is a left tributary to the river Meuse. The source of the Jeker is near the village Geer in the Belgian province Liège. Most of its course is in Belgium , except the final approx. 5 km in the Netherlands...

 and the Meuse from Maastricht

Maastricht

Maastricht is situated on both sides of the Meuse river in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands, on the Belgian border and near the German border...

 in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 to the area of Liège

Liège

Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....

 in Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

.

Principal characteristics

Mount Saint Peter's limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 composition, its deposits of flint

Flint

Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...

 nodules and its geographic position make it a remarkable place. The locale has been mined for flint from Neolithic

Neolithic

The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...

 times. The network of mining tunnels extended 200 kilometres (124.3 mi) by the 19th century. The mountain supports the richest environment for bats in Benelux

Benelux

The Benelux is an economic union in Western Europe comprising three neighbouring countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. These countries are located in northwestern Europe between France and Germany...

, as well as the richest environment for orchids in Benelux. Some of the first recognised reptile

Reptile

Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...

 fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

s among which the famous Mosasaurus

Mosasaurus

Mosasaurus is a genus of mosasaur, carnivorous, aquatic lizards, somewhat resembling flippered crocodiles, with elongated heavy jaws. The genus existed during the Maastrichtian age of the Cretaceous period , around 70-65 millions years ago in the area of modern Western Europe and North America...

and turtle

Turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...

s were found here in the 18th century; later dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

 remains were discovered also, belonging to Betasuchus

Betasuchus

Betasuchus was a theropod dinosaur which lived during the Late Cretaceous Period.Its fossil, holotype BMNH 42997 , a part of a right femur, 312 mm long, was found in The Netherlands near Maastricht, and originally described as a new species of Megalosaurus in 1883 by Harry Seeley: M...

and Orthomerus

Orthomerus

Orthomerus is a genus of duckbill dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of The Netherlands, Belgium and possibly Ukraine. It is today an obscure genus, but in the past was conflated with the much better known Telmatosaurus....

.

In modern times the mountain has been a source of lime

Calcium hydroxide

Calcium hydroxide, traditionally called slaked lime, is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Ca2. It is a colourless crystal or white powder and is obtained when calcium oxide is mixed, or "slaked" with water. It has many names including hydrated lime, builders lime, slack lime, cal, or...

. The mountain's height and strategic location made it the site of Fort Eben-Emael

Fort Eben-Emael

Fort Eben-Emael is an inactive Belgian fortress located between Liège and Maastricht, on the Belgian-Dutch border, near the Albert Canal, and designed to defend Belgium from a German attack across the narrow belt of Dutch territory in the region. Constructed in 1931–1935, it was reputed to be...

 in the twentieth century.

Geology

At Mount Saint Peter the Geer (Jeker in Dutch) and the Meuse rivers have cut into the limestone plateau known in the east as the Herve plateau

Land of Herve

The Land of Herve is a 420 km² natural region of Wallonia located between the Vesdre and Meuse rivers and the borders separating Belgium from the Netherlands and Germany....

 and in the west as Hesbaye

Hesbaye

Hesbaye or Haspengouw , is a region spanning the south of the Belgian province of Limburg, the east of the Belgian provinces of Flemish Brabant and Walloon Brabant, and the northwestern part of the province of Liège.The Limburgish portion contains the cities of Tongeren, Sint-Truiden, Bilzen and...

. The succeeding geologic layers include loess

Loess

Loess is an aeolian sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown silt, typically in the 20–50 micrometre size range, twenty percent or less clay and the balance equal parts sand and silt that are loosely cemented by calcium carbonate...

, gravel

Gravel

Gravel is composed of unconsolidated rock fragments that have a general particle size range and include size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments. Gravel can be sub-categorized into granule and cobble...

, quartz sand

Sand

Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...

 and chalk

Chalk

Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....

y limestone of the Maastricht Formation

Maastricht Formation

The Maastricht Formation , named after the city of Maastricht, the Netherlands, is a geological formation in the Netherlands and Belgium whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous, within 500k years of the K-Pg boundary, dated to 65.5 million years ago. The formation is part of the Chalk Group...

 with inclusions of flint. The chalk deposits contain numerous fossils of sea urchin

Sea urchin

Sea urchins or urchins are small, spiny, globular animals which, with their close kin, such as sand dollars, constitute the class Echinoidea of the echinoderm phylum. They inhabit all oceans. Their shell, or "test", is round and spiny, typically from across. Common colors include black and dull...

s, clam

Clam

The word "clam" can be applied to freshwater mussels, and other freshwater bivalves, as well as marine bivalves.In the United States, "clam" can be used in several different ways: one, as a general term covering all bivalve molluscs...

s and belemnites

Hydrography

The mountain is bounded on the east by the Meuse and on the west by the Geer. The Albert Canal cuts the mountain in two for 1300 metres (4,265.1 ft) in length and 65 metres (213.3 ft) in depth at the Casters cutting. The Lanaye locks at the end of the cutting permit boats to pass to the Meuse basin from the Juliana Canal

Juliana Canal

The Juliana Canal , named after Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, is a 36 km long canal in the southern Netherlands, providing a bypass of an unnavigable section of the river Meuse between Maastricht and Maasbracht...

 and the Rhine. To the east the course of the Meuse has been altered, creating backwaters and old channels.

Ecology

Because of its limestone soil, the Mount Saint Peter is exceptional in its botanical variety. It is the northern limit for a number of species of orchids due to its favorable microclimate

Microclimate

A microclimate is a local atmospheric zone where the climate differs from the surrounding area. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square feet or as large as many square miles...

. Some of the orchids found there include:

• Aceras anthropophorum
• Ophrys apifera
• Ophrys insectifera
• Orchis militaris
• Orchis purpurea
• Platanthera bifolia
  Platanthera bifolia
  Platanthera bifolia, commonly known as the Lesser Butterfly-orchid, is a species of orchid in the genus Platanthera, having certain relations with the genus Orchis, where it was previously included and also with the genus Habenaria. It can be found throughout Europe and Morocco...
  
  

Industry

Humans have used the site since the lower Paleolithic

Lower Paleolithic

The Lower Paleolithic is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 2.5 million years ago when the first evidence of craft and use of stone tools by hominids appears in the current archaeological record, until around 300,000 years ago, spanning the...

 period. The area around Spiennes

Spiennes

Spiennes is a Walloon village in the municipality of Mons, Belgium.It is well known for its neolithic flint mines, which are on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 2000....

 is known for its flint mines. Marl

Marl

Marl or marlstone is a calcium carbonate or lime-rich mud or mudstone which contains variable amounts of clays and aragonite. Marl was originally an old term loosely applied to a variety of materials, most of which occur as loose, earthy deposits consisting chiefly of an intimate mixture of clay...

 has been quarried in the area for building stone. Limestone continues to be quarried for portland cement

Portland cement

Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world because it is a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco and most non-specialty grout...

 production. Abandoned quarries are used to dispose of ashes from municipal waste incinerators.

Source

• This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding French Wikipedia article as of November 4, 2010.

External links

• Montagne Saint-Pierre, site describing the region
• Sint Pietersberg Maastricht, Dutch version