Saltern Cove is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is on the coast of Tor Bay, south of Paignton, Devon, England. It is one of the coves which make up the local area known as "Three Beaches".
Saltern Cove is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is on the coast of Tor Bay, south of Paignton, Devon, England. It is one of the coves which make up the local area known as "Three Beaches".
The rocky coastline at Saltern Cove supports diverse communities of intertidal plants and animals. Along the lower shore the coarse grained rocks are partly covered by brown seaweeds such as Flat wrack (Fucus spiralis) and Knotted wrack Ascophyllum nodosum, while pools and crevices in the rocks provide shelter for a wide variety of algal species, such as the red seaweed Corallina officinalis . Animals include the Snakelocks anemone Anemonia viridis, the Spotted goby Gobius ruthensparri, Periwinkles Littorina spp. and the Squat lobster Galathea strigosa.
At low tide, sandy areas are exposed between the rocks and these support a fauna characteristic of sediment shores including Common starfish Asterias rubens and burrowing animals such as the Razor shell Ensis arcuata, the Thin tellin Tellina fabula and the Sea potato Echinocardium cordatum. [1]
The cliff face is an exposed face of a greatly disturbed Devonian sequence, overlain in places by Permian sandstones and breccias. The succession is composed of Givetian limestones, which are separated by a thrust from a Frasnian – Famennian sequence of slates and limestones on top of dolerite and tuffs. These beds are adjacent to interbedded thin bands of shales, fine greenish tuffs, red crinoidal limestones, contorted coarse tuffs and red shales and shale limestone. Inshore, an intrusive albite dolerite sill rests on the tuffs.
The next layer up comprises limestones in which fossils of the corals Macgeea , Thamnopora , and Alveolites have been found. A seven-meter layer of crinoidal limestone contains the fossil coral Peneckiella salternensis.
At the back of the beach, these rock forms are found again, but here including tuff lenses and pale green reduction bands.
On the northeast side of the point are the Saltern Cove Goniatite Band outcrops of the Upper Frasnian age. Limestone clasts above and below this level however, have revealed conodonts of the quadrantinodosa Zone of the Famennian (Upper Cheiloceras – lower Platyclymenia Zone) indicating that the Goniatite Bed is an intraformational slump.
Eight metres above the Goniatite Band is a metre-thick limestone conglomerate. This displays grading, contains blocks up to 50 cm across, as well as small micritic limestone clasts, which contain Frasnian and Famennian conodonts. [2]
As Saltern Cove lies between the major tourist beaches at Goodrington and Broadsands, there is continual disruption to the site due to rockpooling and collecting. It is believed that the diversity of the site's fauna has decreased over the last 25 years. [3]
The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era during the Phanerozoic eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian period at 419.2 million years ago (Ma), to the beginning of the succeeding Carboniferous period at 358.9 Ma. It is named after Devon, South West England, where rocks from this period were first studied.
The Late Devonian extinction consisted of several extinction events in the Late Devonian Epoch, which collectively represent one of the five largest mass extinction events in the history of life on Earth. The term primarily refers to a major extinction, the Kellwasser event, also known as the Frasnian-Famennian extinction, which occurred around 372 million years ago, at the boundary between the Frasnian stage and the Famennian stage, the last stage in the Devonian Period. Overall, 19% of all families and 50% of all genera became extinct. A second mass extinction called the Hangenberg event, also known as the end-Devonian extinction, occurred 359 million years ago, bringing an end to the Famennian and Devonian, as the world transitioned into the Carboniferous Period.
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The Yoredale Series, in geology, is a now obsolete term for a local phase of the Carboniferous rocks of the north of England, ranging in age from the Asbian Substage to the Yeadonian Substage. The term Yoredale Group is nowadays applied to the same broad suite of rocks. The name was introduced by J. Phillips on account of the typical development of the phase in Yoredale, Yorkshire.
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.
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Southerndown is a village in the Vale of Glamorgan, in south Wales. It is southwest of Bridgend, and within the St Brides Major community, close to Llantwit Major and Ogmore-by-Sea. It is mostly known for its beach which backs Dunraven Bay, which is a popular tourist destination during the summer months and since 1972 has been part of a Heritage Coast and is part of the Southerndown Coast SSSI. When the tide is out there is an expanse of sand and pools. The cliffs are an obvious example of sedimentary rock.
The Hangenberg event, also known as the Hangenberg crisis or end-Devonian extinction, is a mass extinction that occurred at the end of the Famennian stage, the last stage in the Devonian Period. It is usually considered the second-largest extinction in the Devonian Period, having occurred approximately 13 million years after the Late Devonian mass extinction at the Frasnian-Famennian boundary. The event is named after the Hangenberg Shale, which is part of a sequence that straddles the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary in the Rhenish Massif of Germany.
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