A quarry is a place from which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate has been excavated from the ground. A quarry is the same thing as an open-pit mine from which minerals are extracted. The only trivial difference between the two is that open-pit mines that produce building materials and dimension stone are commonly referred to as quarries.
The word quarry can also include the underground quarrying for stone.
Many quarries naturally fill with water after abandonment and become lakes. Others are made into landfills.
