family summer vacation part 1

Mønsted lime mines is located at Mønsted south of Hjarbæk Fjord and west of Viborg. The lime mines are caves in a superficial lime layer, where lime has been broken for many centuries, for example for the manufacture of mortar for the building of churches and monasteries.
For many centuries, local farmers run the mining company until 1872, where the rights to the lime were sold to Mønsted lime factories. Until 1953 there were limestone breaking activities in the mine .

The caldera is located in northern Jutland very close to the ground. This is due to a thick layer of salt in the underground below the lime. Made of salt was deposited at a time when the area was covered by a shallow sea. The salt has a small density relative to other deposited layers. Because of this the salt floats slowly towards the surface while the heavier layers sink into the underground.

Salt diapers that force the lime layers to make lime mines as at Mønsted and Daugbjerg.
When the salt moves towards the surface, it pushes chalk and lime in front of it. When the salt layer reaches the groundwater, it rises no higher as the water dissolves and drains it away. Only dissolved minerals will remain and form a gypsum scale law on the salt layer. When the salt has reached this point, it has pushed chalk and lime so high that it is only a few meters below ground level. Normally these layers would lay about 4-500 meters deep. Mønsted Lime Mine, Daugbjerg Lime Mine and Tingbæk Lime Mine are all such raised lime layers.

The calf can be washed away with underground springs and sedimentary water, thereby forming natural underground corridors and caves. The underground corridors can collapse and thus form so-called landfill holes where the surface earth suddenly disappears in a hole.
There are not many hollow animals in Denmark, but one species of animals has learned to utilize the constant temperature of the caves. The lime mines in Jutland are known for their large amounts of bats that overwinter in the freezing environment of the caves. In August, the bats gather in the caves to mate and then they go to sleep the same place until spring, where they appear again. In Mønsted Kalkgruber there are common water flapper mice and the rarer puff pastry mice.

The mines are nowadays most known as a tourist attraction, where concerts are held in the beautiful, almost cathedral-like big rooms. But in fact, the mine is also still being exploited industrially. Arla has rented a large part of the hallway in the mine for the maturing of Riberhus mining cheese. The cheeses are mature for three weeks in the cool times where the temperature never exceeds 8 degrees while the humidity is constant around 98%. This provides a perfect setting for chewing mushrooms - so perfect that it is worthwhile to ship the cheeses into the narrow old mines and turn them every week for three weeks until the maturation is complete. Most cheeses then become export law Germany.