The SEC and the Hugh Kaul Ecoscape are on the Birmingham-Southern Campus. The college – known to many as The Hilltop – is on one of the many hills of dolomite and chert found on the floor of Jones Valley. These hills are present in Jones Valley because these rocks have resisted erosion more than the other rock formations of the valley floor.
The rocks of the hilltop are of the Copper Ridge Dolomite formation, which is composed of dolomite and chert. Fossil stromatolites are common in these rocks – these were colonies of microorganisms and the minerals they deposited. You can spot these fossils by looking for many narrow bands of different colors in the rock.
Rocks of the Copper Ridge Dolomite formation formed just over 440 – 460 million years ago in the Cambrian.