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The Old Red Sandstone is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the northeastern seaboard of North America. It also extends northwards into Greenland and Svalbard. These areas were a part of the ancient continent of Euramerica/Laurussia. In Britain it is a lithostratigraphic unit to which stratigraphers accord supergroup status and which is of considerable importance to early paleontology. For convenience the short version of the term, ORS is often used in literature on the subject. The term was coined to distinguish the sequence from the younger New Red Sandstone which also occurs widely throughout Britain.
The Blue Lias is a geological formation in southern, eastern and western England and parts of South Wales, part of the Lias Group. The Blue Lias consists of a sequence of limestone and shale layers, laid down in latest Triassic and early Jurassic times, between 195 and 200 million years ago. The Blue Lias is famous for its fossils, especially ammonites.
The Fernie Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Jurassic age. It is present in the western part of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in western Alberta and northeastern British Columbia. It takes its name from the town of Fernie, British Columbia, and was first defined by W.W. Leach in 1914.
The Whitby Mudstone is a Toarcian geological formation in Yorkshire and Worcestershire, England. The formation, part of the Lias Group, is present in the Cleveland and Worcester Basins and the East Midlands Shelf.
The Gravelbourg Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Bajocian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
The Mercia Mudstone Group is an early Triassic lithostratigraphic group which is widespread in Britain, especially in the English Midlands – the name is derived from the ancient kingdom of Mercia which corresponds to that area. It is frequently encountered in older literature as the Keuper Marl or Keuper Marl Series.
The Great Estuarine Group is a sequence of rocks which outcrop around the coast of the West Highlands of Scotland. Laid down in the Hebrides Basin during the middle Jurassic, they are the rough time equivalent of the Inferior and Great Oolite Groups found in southern England.
The Ravenscar Group is a Jurassic lithostratigraphic group which occurs within the Cleveland Basin of North Yorkshire and extends to both the Hambleton and Howardian Hills. The name is derived from Ravenscar on the North Yorkshire coast where rocks of this age occur. It was earlier known as the 'Middle Jurassic Series'. It is the stratigraphic equivalent to the Inferior Oolite Group and most of the Great Oolite Group, being overlain by the Cornbrash Formation of the latter unit.
The geology of Lancashire in northwest England consists in the main of Carboniferous age rocks but with Triassic sandstones and mudstones at or near the surface of the lowlands bordering the Irish Sea though these are largely obscured by Quaternary deposits.
The Charmouth Mudstone Formation is a geological formation in England. It preserves fossils dating back to the early part of the Jurassic period (Sinemurian–Pliensbachian). It forms part of the lower Lias Group. It is most prominently exposed at its type locality in cliff section between Lyme Regis and Charmouth but onshore it extends northwards to Market Weighton, Yorkshire, and in the subsurface of the East Midlands Shelf and Wessex Basin. The formation is notable for its fossils, including those of ammonites and marine reptiles and rare dinosaur remains. The formation played a prominent role in the history of early paleontology, with its Lyme Regis-Charmouth exposure being frequented by fossil collectors including Mary Anning.
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.
The Pembroke Limestone Group is a stratigraphic unit of Courceyan to Brigantian age found in southern Wales and northern Somerset. It forms part of the Carboniferous Limestone Supergroup. These carbonate rocks developed in platform and ramp environments and are up to 1025m thick in places.
The Worcester Basin or Worcester Graben is a sedimentary basin in central England, filled with mainly Permian and Triassic rocks. It trends roughly north-south and lies between the East Malverns Fault in the west and the Inkberrow Fault in the east. It forms part of a series of Permo-Triassic basins that stretch north-south across England, including the Cheshire Basin and the East Irish Sea Basin. These basins resulted from a regional rifting event that affected parts of North-West Europe, eastern North America and East Greenland.
The Craven Group is a lithostratigraphical term referring to the succession of mudstone and limestone rock strata which occur in certain parts of northern and central England and northeast Wales in the United Kingdom within the Chadian to Yeadonian sub-Stages of the Carboniferous Period. Other lithologies including sandstones, siltstones and chert occur within the group. The Group is subdivided into numerous formations, some of which previously enjoyed group status. In stratigraphic order, these are:
Fossil Beach, at Sedbury, Gloucestershire, England, is beneath the Sedbury Cliffs by the River Severn and is known as a rich source of easily discovered fossils. It is within the Severn Estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
The Tyrone Group is a lithostratigraphical term coined to refer to a particular succession of rock strata which occur in Northern Ireland within the Visean Stage of the Carboniferous Period. It comprises a series of limestones, shales and sandstones which accumulated to a thickness of 2400m in the northwest Carboniferous basin of Ireland. The type areas for the group are the Clogher Valley of County Tyrone and the Fermanagh Highlands of nearby County Fermanagh. The rocks of the group sit unconformably on older rocks of the Shanmullagh Formation of the Fintona Group which are the local representatives of the Lower Old Red Sandstone. The top of the Dartry Limestone, the uppermost part of the group, is a disconformity, above which are the layered sandstones and shales of the Meenymore Formation of the Leitrim Group. The succession continues south and west across the border into the Republic of Ireland, though different names are typically applied.
The Leitrim Group is a lithostratigraphical term coined to refer to the succession of rock strata which occur in Northern Ireland within the Visean and Namurian stages of the Carboniferous Period. The group disconformably overlies the Dartry Limestone of the Tyrone Group.
The geology of Exmoor National Park in south-west England contributes significantly to the character of Exmoor, a landscape which was designated as a national park in 1954. The bedrock of the area consists almost wholly of a suite of sedimentary rocks deposited during the Devonian, a period named for the English county of Devon in which the western half of the park sits. The eastern part lies within Somerset and it is within this part of the park that limited outcrops of Triassic and Jurassic age rocks are to be found.
The geology of the Peak District National Park in England is dominated by a thick succession of faulted and folded sedimentary rocks of Carboniferous age. The Peak District is often divided into a southerly White Peak where Carboniferous Limestone outcrops and a northerly Dark Peak where the overlying succession of sandstones and mudstones dominate the landscape. The scarp and dip slope landscape which characterises the Dark Peak also extends along the eastern and western margins of the park. Although older rocks are present at depth, the oldest rocks which are to be found at the surface in the national park are dolomitic limestones of the Woo Dale Limestone Formation seen where Woo Dale enters Wye Dale east of Buxton.
The geology of the North York Moors National Park in northern England is provided largely by a thick southerly dipping sequence of sedimentary rocks deposited in the Cleveland Basin during the Jurassic Period. A series of ice ages during the Quaternary period has left a variety of glacial deposits, particularly around the margins of the National Park.
References
Notes
- ↑ Gradstein, F.M.; Ogg, J.G.; Smith, A.G. (2005), A Geologic Time Scale 2004, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521786737
- ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. "lias".
- ↑ Somerset Geological TimeLine, fossilgalore.com
- ↑ British Geological Survey (BGS). "Geology of Britain viewer". mapapps.bgs.ac.uk.
- ↑ "BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units". www.bgs.ac.uk.
- ↑ "BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units". www.bgs.ac.uk.
- ↑ "BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units". www.bgs.ac.uk.
- ↑ See for example Wong (2007)
- ↑ Deutsche Stratigraphische Kommission (eds.): Stratigraphische Tabelle von Deutschland 2002 Archived 2008-10-25 at the Wayback Machine (stratigraphic tables of the German commission on stratigraphy), Potsdam 2002, ISBN 3-00-010197-7 (PDF: 6.57 MB)
Literature
- Wong, Th.E. (2007): Jurassic, in: Wong, Th.E.; Batjes, D.A.J. & Jager, J. de (eds.): Geology of the Netherlands, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, pp. 107–125.