Ladies Cave Anticline

Saundersfoot to Swallowtree Bay geological structures

The Ladies Cave Anticline is a well-known and much visited structure in Lower Coal Measures rocks just south of Saundersfoot harbour.

This is a fine example of a chevron fold, often developed in alternating layers of stronger and weaker rocks. The fold is asymmetric; the axis dips steeply to the south (left). Accommodation structures as a result of the 'space problem' include thinning of the fold limbs in the weaker mudstones layers, 'flowing' up into the thickened fold hinge to form saddle structures.

There are also small scale thrusts in the hinge zone:


Earlier photos here (September 2010)


and here (February 1993)