Rudice – Seč, Natural monument in Rudice, Czech Republic

Rudice – Seč is a natural monument in the Moravský Kras landscape, where quarry walls reveal layered sediments from the Lower Cretaceous period. The site spans roughly 7 hectares and displays different types of sand and clay deposits that were exposed during decades of mining activity.

The site functioned as an active quarry for glass-making and foundry sands until 2018, serving the regional industrial demand. Following the gradual halt of extraction, the location received protection as a natural monument to preserve its geological value.

The name Seč refers to the closed quarry at the southwestern edge of Rudice, where iron ore was mined in the Hallstatt period and the early Middle Ages. Today the quarry floor holds small ponds where the fire-bellied toad lives, and the open substrates are used unofficially for camping, motocross and cyclocross.

There are no marked trails: the former quarry is a protected natural monument, and camping, motocross and cyclocross there are illegal. The site lies on the southwestern edge of Rudice at 506–522 m in the Moravský kras, within the Drahanská vrchovina. Expect steep quarry walls and uneven ground, and note that digging into the walls damages the protected layers.

The quarry is the only exposure of the so-called Rudice beds, Lower Cretaceous sediments filling depressions up to 100 metres deep in the former relief. These are considered the oldest traces of karstification in the Moravský kras. The middle sand layer holds flint nodules and quartz geodes, usually 3 to 7 cm across, though finds about 40 cm in diameter are known.