Derived from the characteristically coloured marls and sandstones which occur beneath the chalk is a late Cretaceous lithostratigraphic group,  particularly along the coast of one of six countries that make up what?
County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, from Irish: "Aontroim" , meaning "lone ridge" , )) is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 3046 km2 and has a population of about 618,000. County Antrim has a population density of 203 people per square kilometer / 526 people per square mile. It is also one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland, as well as part of the historic province of Ulster.
Carbonate platform A carbonate platform is a sedimentary body which possesses topographic relief, and is composed of autochthonous calcareous deposits (Wilson, 1975). Platform growth is mediated by sessile organisms whose skeletons build up the reef or by organisms (usually microbes) which induce carbonate precipitation through their metabolism. Therefore, carbonate platforms can not grow up everywhere: they are not present in places where limiting factors to the life of reef-building organisms exist. Such limiting factors are, among others: light, water temperature, transparency and pH-Value. For example, carbonate sedimentation along the Atlantic South American coasts takes place everywhere but at the mouth of the Amazon River, because of the intense turbidity of the water there (Carannante et al., 1988). Spectacular examples of present-day carbonate platforms are the Bahama Banks under which the platform is roughly 8 km thick, the Yucatan Peninsula which is up to 2 km thick, the Florida platform, the platform on which the Great Barrier Reef is growing, and the Maldive atolls. All these carbonate platforms and their associated reefs are confined to tropical latitudes. Today’s reefs are built mainly by scleractinian corals, but in the distant past other organisms, like archaeocyatha (during the Cambrian) or extinct cnidaria (tabulata and rugosa) were important reef builders.