Caradoc Series

Last updated

In geology, Caradoc Series is the name introduced by Roderick Murchison in 1839 for the sandstone series of Caer Caradoc in Shropshire, England. It is the fifth of the six subdivisions (in ascending order) of the Ordovician System, comprising all those rocks deposited worldwide during the Caradocian Age (458 to 448 million years ago).

Contents

The limits of Murchison's Caradoc series have since been somewhat modified, and through the labours of Charles Lapworth the several members of the series have been precisely defined by means of graptolitic zones. These zones are identical with those found in the rocks of the same age in North Wales, the Bala Series, and the terms Bala or Caradoc series are used interchangeably by geologists when referring to the uppermost substage of the Ordovician System.

The Ordovician rocks of the Caradoc district have been subdivided into the following beds, in descending order: the Trinucleus shales, Acton Scott beds, Longville flags, Chatwell and Soudley sandstones, Harnage shales and Hoar Edge grits and limestone. In the Corndon district in the same county the Caradoc series is represented by the Marrington group of ashes and shales and the Spy Wood group beneath them; these two groups of strata are sometimes spoken of as the Chirbury series. In the Breidden district are the barren Criggeon shales with ashes and flows of andesite.

In the Lake district the Coniston limestone series represents the Upper Caradocian, the lower portion being taken up by part of the great Borrowdale volcanic series of rocks. The Coniston limestone series contains the following subdivisions Ashgill group (Ashgill shales and Staurocephalus limestone) -

Rocks of Caradoc age are well developed in southern Scotland; in the Girvan district they have been described as the Ardmillan series with the Drummock group and Barren Flagstone group in the upper portion, and the Whitehouse, Ardwell and Balclatchie groups in the lower part. Similarly, two divisions, known as the Upper and Lower Hartfell series, are recognized in the southern and central area, in Peeblesshire, Ayrshire and Dumfriesshire.

In Ireland the Caradoc or Bala series is represented by the limestones of Portraine near Dublin and of the Chair of Kildare; by the Ballymoney series of Wexford and Carnalea shales of County Down. In the Lough Mask district beds of this age are found, as in Wales, interstratified with volcanic lavas and tuffs. Other localities are known in counties Tyrone, Meath and Louth, also in Lambay Island.

Early descriptions of the Bala series

The Bala Series was described as a group of dark slates and sandstones with beds of limestone which occurs in the neighborhood of Bala, Gwynedd, in north Wales. [1]

It was first described by Adam Sedgwick, who considered it to be the upper part of his Cambrian System. The Bala limestone is from 20 to 40 ft (12 m) thick, and is recognizable over most of North Wales. The series in the type area consists of the Hirnant limestone, a thin inconstant bed, which is separated by 1,400 ft (430 m). of slates from the Bala limestone, below this are more slates and volcanic rocks. The latter are represented by large contemporaneous deposits of tuff and felsitic lava which in the Snowdon District are several thousand feet thick. [1]

In South Wales the Bala Series contains the following beds in descending order: the Trinucleus seticornis beds (Slade beds, Redhill shales and Sholeshook limestone), the Robeston Wathen beds, and the Dicranograplus shales. The typical graptolites are, in the upper part, Dicellograptus anceps and D. complanatus; in the lower part, Pleurograptus linearis and Dicranograptus clingani.

Related Research Articles

The Ordovician is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period 485.4 million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period 443.8 Mya.

Charles Lapworth

Charles Lapworth FRS FGS was an English geologist who pioneered faunal analysis using index fossils and identified the Ordovician period.

The Howgill Fells are hills in Northern England between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, lying roughly in between the vertices of a triangle made by the towns of Sedbergh, Kirkby Stephen and Tebay. The name Howgill derives from the Old Norse word haugr meaning a hill or barrow, plus gil meaning a narrow valley.

Borrowdale Volcanic Group

The Borrowdale Volcanic Group is a group of igneous rock formations named after the Borrowdale area of the Lake District, in England. They are Caradocian in age. It is thought that they represent the remains of a volcanic island arc, approximately similar to the island arcs of the west Pacific today. This developed as oceanic crust to the (present) north-west and was forced by crustal movement under a continental land-mass to the present south-east. Such forcing under, as two plates meet, is termed subduction. This land-mass has been named Avalonia by geologists. It is now incorporated into England and Wales and a sliver of North America.

Geology of India Geological origins and structure of India

The geology of India is diverse. Different regions of India contain rocks belonging to different geologic periods, dating as far back as the Eoarchean Era. Some of the rocks are very deformed and altered. Other deposits include recently deposited alluvium that has yet to undergo diagenesis. Mineral deposits of great variety are found in the Indian subcontinent in huge quantity. Even India's fossil record is impressive in which stromatolites, invertebrates, vertebrates and plant fossils are included. India's geographical land area can be classified into the Deccan Traps, Gondwana and Vindhyan.

The Wenlock Group (Wenlockian), in geology, is the middle series of strata in the Silurian of Great Britain. This group in the typical area in the Welsh border counties contains the following formations: Much Wenlock Limestone Formation, 90–300 ft.; Wenlock Shale, up to 1900 ft.; Woolhope or Barr Limestone and shale, 150 ft.

Geology of the Australian Capital Territory Overview of the geology of the Australian Capital Territory

The geology of the Australian Capital Territory includes rocks dating from the Ordovician around 480 million years ago, whilst most rocks are from the Silurian. During the Ordovician period the region—along with most of eastern Australia—was part of the ocean floor. The area contains the Pittman Formation consisting largely of Quartz-rich sandstone, siltstone and shale; the Adaminaby Beds and the Acton Shale.

In geology, the Llandeilo Group is the middle subdivision of the British Ordovician rocks. It was first described and named by Sir Roderick Murchison from the neighborhood of Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire. In the type area it consists of a series of slaty rocks, shales, calcareous flagstones and sandstones; the calcareous middle portion is sometimes termed the Llandeilo limestone; and in the upper portion volcanic rocks are intercalated.

The Ludlow Group are geologic formations deposited during the Ludlow epoch of the Silurian period in the British Isles, in areas of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

The Windermere Supergroup is a geological unit formed during the Ordovician to Silurian periods ~450 million years ago, and exposed in northwest England, including the Pennines and correlates along its strike, in the Isle of Man and Ireland, and down-dip in the Southern Uplands and Welsh Borderlands. It underlies much of north England's younger cover, extending south to East Anglia. It formed as a foreland basin, in a similar setting to the modern Ganges basin, fronting the continent of Avalonia as the remains of the attached Iapetus ocean subducted under Laurentia.

The geology of Wales is complex and varied; its study has been of considerable historical significance in the development of geology as a science. All geological periods from the Cryogenian to the Jurassic are represented at outcrop, whilst younger sedimentary rocks occur beneath the seas immediately off the Welsh coast. The effects of two mountain-building episodes have left their mark in the faulting and folding of much of the Palaeozoic rock sequence. Superficial deposits and landforms created during the present Quaternary period by water and ice are also plentiful and contribute to a remarkably diverse landscape of mountains, hills and coastal plains.

<i>Flexicalymene</i> Genus of trilobites (fossil)

Flexicalymene Shirley, 1936, is a genus of trilobites belonging to the order Phacopida, suborder Calymenina and Family Calymenidae. Flexicalymene specimens can be mistaken for Calymene, Gravicalymene, Diacalymene and a few other Calymenina genera. They are used as an index fossil in the Ordovician. Ohio and North America are particularly known for being rich with Flexicalymene fossils.

Arenig

In geology, the Arenigian refers both to a time interval during the Lower Ordovician period and also to the suite of rocks which were deposited during this interval.

Snowdon Volcanic Group

The Snowdon Volcanic Group is an Ordovician lithostratigraphic group in Snowdonia, north-west Wales. The name is derived from Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales where it outcrops. This assemblage of rocks has also been referred to as the Snowdon Volcanic Series.

<i>Trinodus</i> Extinct genus of trilobites

Trinodus is a very small to small blind trilobite, a well known group of extinct marine arthropods, which lived during the Ordovician, in what are now the Yukon Territories, Virginia, Italy, Czech Republic, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Svalbard, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Iran, Kazakhstan and China. It is one of the last of the Agnostida order to survive.

Geology of the Isle of Skye

The geology of the Isle of Skye in Scotland is highly varied and the island's landscape reflects changes in the underlying nature of the rocks. A wide range of rock types are exposed on the island, sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous, ranging in age from the Archaean through to the Quaternary.

Dent Group

The Dent Group is a group of Upper Ordovician sedimentary and volcanic rocks in north-west England. It is the lowermost part of the Windermere Supergroup, which was deposited in the foreland basin formed during the collision between Laurentia and Avalonia. It lies unconformably on the Borrowdale Volcanic Group. This unit was previously known as the Coniston Limestone Group or Coniston Limestone Formation and should not be confused with the significantly younger Coniston Group.

Geology of the Lake District

The geology of England's Lake District is dominated by sedimentary and volcanic rocks of mainly Ordovician age underpinned by large granitic intrusions. Younger sedimentary sequences outcrop on the edges of the Lake District area, with Silurian to the south, Carboniferous to the north, east and west and Permo-Triassic to the west and east. The entire area was covered by a Mesozoic sequence that was eroded off during Paleogene uplift related to the opening of the North Atlantic. During the Quaternary the area was affected by repeated glaciations, which sculpted the current mountainous landscape.

The geology of Utah includes rocks formed at the edge of the proto-North American continent during the Precambrian. A shallow marine sedimentary environment covered the region for much of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic, followed by dryland conditions, volcanism and the formation of the basin and range terrain in the Cenozoic. Utah is a state in the western United States.

Geology of Uzbekistan

The geology of Uzbekistan consists of two microcontinents and the remnants of oceanic crust, which fused together into a tectonically complex but resource rich land mass during the Paleozoic, before becoming draped in thick, primarily marine sedimentary units.

References

Wikisource-logo.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Caradoc Series". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

  1. 1 2 Wikisource-logo.svg One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bala Series". Encyclopædia Britannica . 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 239.

Bibliography

Meg., 1892; J. B. Marr and T. Roberts, Q. J. G. S., 1885; B. N.