Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T16:11:54.110Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The stratigraphy, correlation, provenance and palaeogeography of the Skiddaw Group (Ordovician) in the English Lake District

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

A. H. Cooper ,
A. W. A. Rushton ,
S. G. Molyneux ,
R. A. Hughes ,
R. M. Moore  and
B. C. Webb
A. H. Cooper
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK
A. W. A. Rushton
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK
S. G. Molyneux
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK
R. A. Hughes
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, Murchison House, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3LA, UK
R. M. Moore
Affiliation:
Formerly Department of Earth Sciences, Leeds University. Now British Gas, 100 Thames Valley Park Road, Reading RG6 1PT, UK
B. C. Webb
Affiliation:
Formerly British Geological Survey, Newcastle upon Tyne. Now 1 Grassfield Cottages, Nenthead, Alston, Cumbria CA9 3LW, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A new lithostratigraphy is presented for the Skiddaw Group (lower Ordovician) of the English Lake District. Two stratigraphical belts are described. Five formations are defined in the Northern Fells Belt, ranging in age from Tremadoc to early Llanvirn. They are all mudstone or sandstone dominated, of turbidite origin; in ascending order they are named the Bitter Beck, Watch Hill, Hope Beck, Loweswater and Kirk Stile formations. Two formations are defined in the Central Fells Belt, ranging in age from late Arenig to Llanvirn. These are the Buttermere Formation – a major olistostrome deposit – overlain by the Tarn Moor Formation, consisting of turbidite mudstones with volcaniclastic turbidite sandstone beds. A revised graptolite and new acritarch biostratigraphy for the Skiddaw Group is presented with eight graptolite biozones and thirteen acritarch assemblages and sub-assemblages. The provenance of the group is assessed from detailed petrographical and geochemical work. This suggests derivation, in the early Ordovician, largely from an old inactive continental arc terrane lying to the southeast, with the appearance of juvenile volcanic material in the Llanvirn. Comparisons and correlations of the Skiddaw Group are made with the Isle of Man and eastern Ireland.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 132 , Issue 2 , March 1995 , pp. 185 - 211
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, P. M., & Cooper, D. C., 1986. The stratigraphy and composition of the Latterbarrow and Redmain sandstones, Lake District, England. Geological Journal 21, 59–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Banham, P. H., Hopper, F. M. W., & Jackson, J. B., 1981. The Gillbrea Nappe in the Skiddaw Group, Cockermouth, Cumbria, England. Geological Magazine 118, 509–16.Google Scholar
Beckly, A. J., & Maletz, J., 1991. The Ordovician graptolites Azygograptus and Jishougraptus in Scandinavia and Britain. Palaeontology 34, 887–925.Google Scholar
Bouma, A. H., 1962. Sedimentology of some flysch deposits. Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Co., 169 pp.Google Scholar
Burgess, I. C., 1971. Synopses of logs of Allenheads No 1 Borehole ([8604 4539]; OD 406.76 m) and No 2 Borehole ([8715 4505]; OD 536.45 m). Annual Report of the Institute of Geological Sciences for 1970, 33.Google Scholar
Burgess, I. C., & Holliday, D. W., 1979. Geology of the country around Brough-under-Stainmore. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Sheets 31 and parts of 25 and 30.Google Scholar
Burgess, I. C., & Wadge, A. J., 1974. The Geology of the Cross Fell area. London: HMSO for Institute of Geological Sciences, vii + 91 pp.Google Scholar
Cooper, A. H., 1990 a. The Skiddaw Group of Stoneycroft Gill, Causey Pike and Outerside. In The Geology of the Lake District (ed. F., Moseley), pp. 82–9. The Geologists’ Association.Google Scholar
Cooper, A. H., 1990 b. The Skiddaw Group of Causey Pike. Proceedings of the Cumberland Geological Society 5, 222–30.Google Scholar
Cooper, A. H., Millward, D., Johnson, E. W., & Soper, N. J., 1992. A field guide to the Lower Palaeozoic rocks of the northern Pennines and the Lake District. British Geological Survey Technical Report WA/92/69. 30 PP.Google Scholar
Cooper, A. H., Millward, D., Johnson, E. W., & Soper, N. J., 1993. The Early Palaeozoic evolution of Northwest England. Geological Magazine 130, 711–724.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, A. H., & Molyneux, S. G., 1990. The age and correlation of the Skiddaw Group (Early Ordovician) sediments of the Cross Fell inlier (northern England). Geological Magazine 127, 147–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, D. C., Lee, M. K., Fortey, N. J., Cooper, A. H., Rundle, C. C., Webb, B. C., & Allen, P. M., 1988. The Crummock Water aureole: a zone of metasomatism and source of ore metals in the English Lake District. Journal of the Geological Society, London 145, 523–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, R. A., 1992. A relative timescale for the Early Ordovician derived from depositional rates of graptolitic shales. In Global Perspectives on Ordovician Geology (eds Webby, B. D., and Laurie, J. R.), pp. 3–21. Rotterdam: A. A. Balkema.Google Scholar
Cooper, R. A., & Lindholm, K., 1990. A precise worldwide correlation of early Ordovician graptolite sequences. Geological Magazine 127, 497–525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dakyns, J. R., Tiddeman, R. H., & Goodchild, J. G., 1897. The geology of the country between Appleby, Ullswater and Haweswater. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain.Google Scholar
Dean, W. T., 1963. The Stile Ends Beds and Drygill Shales (Ordovician) in the east and north of the English Lake District. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Geology 9, 49–65.Google Scholar
Dickinson, W. R., Beard, L. S., Brackenridge, G. R., Erjavec, J. L., Ferguson, R. C., Inman, K. F., Knepp, R. A., Lindberg, F. A., & Ryberg, P. T., 1983. Provenance of North American Phanerozoic sandstones in relation to tectonic setting. Geological Society of America Bulletin 94, 222–35.Google Scholar
Dixon, E. E., L. 1925. Summary Of Progress, Geological Survey of Great Britain, for 1924, 70–71.Google Scholar
Eastwood, T., 1927. Summary of Progress, Geological Survey of Great Britain, for 1926, 53.Google Scholar
Eastwood, T., Dixon, E. E. L., Hollingworth, S. E., & Smith, B., 1931. The geology of the Whitehaven and Workington district. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain.Google Scholar
Eastwood, T., Hollingworth, S. E., Rose, W. C. C., & Trotter, F. M., 1968. Geology of the country around Cockermouth and Caldbeck. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain.Google Scholar
Elles, G. L., & Wood, E. M. R., 1901. A monograph of British graptolites, part 1. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society 55, 1–54, pls. 1–4.Google Scholar
Floyd, P. A., Shail, R., Leveridge, B. E., & Franke, W., 1991. Geochemistry and provenance of Rhenohercynian synorogenic sandstones in relation to tectonic setting. In Developments in Sedimentary Provenance Studies (eds Morton, A. C., Todd, S. P., and Houghton, P. D. W.), pp. 173–88. Geological Society, London, Special Publication no. 57.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A., 1984. Global earlier Ordovician transgressions and regressions and their biological implications. In Aspects of the Ordovician System (ed. Bruton, D. L.), pp. 37–50. Palaeontological Contributions from the University of Oslo, no. 295. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A., Bassett, M. G., Harper, D. A. T., Hughes, R. A., Ingham, J. K., Molyneux, S. G., Owen, A. W., Owens, R. M., Rushton, A. W. A., & Sheldon, P., 1991. Progress and problems in the selection of stratotypes for the bases of Ordovician series in the type area U.K. In Advances in Ordovician Geology (eds Barnes, C. R., and Williams, S. H.), pp. 5–25. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 90–9.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A., Beckly, A. J., & Rushton, A. W. A., 1990. International correlation of the base of the Llanvirn Series, Ordovician System. Newsletters on Stratigraphy 22, 119–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortey, R. A., Owens, R. M., & Rushton, A. W. A., 1989. The palaeogeographic position of the Lake District in the early Ordovician. Geological Magazine 126, 9–17.Google Scholar
Gillott, J. E., 1956. Breccias in the Manx Slates: their origin and stratigraphic relations. Liverpool and Manchester Geological Journal 1, 370–80, pls 28–30.Google Scholar
Helm, D. G., 1970. Stratigraphy and structure of the Black Combe inlier, English Lake District. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 38, 105–48.Google Scholar
Hughes, R. A., & Kokelaar, P., 1993. The timing of Ordovician magmatism in the English Lake District and Cross Fell inliers. Geological Magazine 130, 369–77.Google Scholar
Hughes, R. A., Cooper, A. H., & Stone, P., 1993. Structural evolution of the Skiddaw Group (English Lake District) on the northern margin of Eastern Avalonia. Geological Magazine 130, 621–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, D. E., 1961. Stratigraphy Of the Skiddaw Group between Buttermere and Mungrisdale, Cumberland. Geological Magazine 98, 515–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, D. E., 1978. The Skiddaw Group. In The geology of the Lake District (ed. F., Moseley), pp. 79–98. Yorkshire Geological Society, Occasional Publication no. 3.Google Scholar
Jackson, D. I., Mulholland, P., Jones, S. M., & Warrington, G., 1987. The geological framework of the East Irish Sea Basin. In Petroleum Geology of North West Europe (eds J., Brooks, and K., Glennie), pp. 191–203. London: Graham and Trotman.Google Scholar
Johnson, E. W., 1992. Geology of Stoupdale area, Black Combe S. W. Cumbria. British Geological Survey Technical Report WA/92/71.Google Scholar
Johnson, G. A. L., 1961. Skiddaw Slates proved in the Teesdale inlier. Nature, London 190, 996.Google Scholar
Kneller, B. C., & Bell, A. M., 1993. An Acadian mountain front in north-west England: the Westmorland Monocline. Geological Magazine 130, 203–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kokelaar, B. P., 1988. Tectonic controls of Ordovician arc and marginal volcanism in Wales. Journal of the Geological Society, London 145, 759–75.Google Scholar
Lee, M. K., 1989. Upper crustal structure of the Lake District from modelling and image processing of potential field data. Technical report of the British Geological Survey, Report WK/89/1.Google Scholar
Leedal, G. P., & Walker, G. P. L., 1950. A restudy of the Ingletonian Series of Yorkshire. Geological Magazine 87, 57–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindholm, K., 1991. Ordovician graptolites from the early Hunneberg of southern Scandinavia. Palaeontology 34, 283–327.Google Scholar
Maletz, J., 1992. The Arenig/Llanvirn boundary in the Quebec Appalachians. Newsletters on Stratigraphy 26, 49–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maletz, J., Rushton, A. W. A., & Lindholm, K., 1991. A new Ordovician Didymograptid, and its bearing on the correlation of the Skiddaw Group of England with the Tøyen Shale of Scandinavia. Geological Magazine 128, 335–43.Google Scholar
Max, M. D., Barber, A. J., & Martinez, J., 1990. Terrane assemblage of the Leinster Massif, SE Ireland, during the Lower Palaeozoic. Journal of the Geological Society, London 147, 1035–50.Google Scholar
McKerrow, W. S., Dewey, J. F., & Scotese, C. R., 1991. The Ordovician and Silurian development of the lapetus Ocean. Special Papers in Palaeontology 44, 165–78.Google Scholar
Millward, D., & Molyneux, S. G., 1992. Field and biostratigraphic evidence for an unconformity at the base of the Eycott Volcanic Group in the English Lake District. Geological Magazine 129, 77–92.Google Scholar
Molyneux, S. G., 1979. New evidence for the age of the Manx Group, Isle of Man. In The Caledonides of the British Isles – Reviewed (eds A.L., Harris, Holland, C. H. and Leake, B. E.), pp. 415–21. Geological Society, London, Special Publication no. 8.Google Scholar
Molyneux, S. G., 1990. Advances and problems in Ordovician palynology of England and Wales. Journal of the Geological Society, London 147, 615–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molyneux, S. G., & Rushton, A. W. A., 1985. Discovery of Tremadoc rocks in the Lake District. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 45, 123–7. [Dated 1984].Google Scholar
Molyneux, S. G., & Rushton, A. W. A., 1988. The age of the Watch Hill Grits (Ordovician), English Lake District: structural and palaeogeographical implications. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 79, 43–69.Google Scholar
Moseley, F., 1984. Lower Palaeozoic lithostratigraphical classification in the English Lake District. Geological Journal 19, 239–47.Google Scholar
Murphy, F. C., 1987. Evidence for late Ordovician amalgamation of volcanogenic terranes in the lapetus suture zone, eastern Ireland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 78, 153–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, F. C., Anderson, T. B., Daly, J. S., Gallagher, V., Graham, J. R., Harper, D. A. T., Johnston, J. D., Kennan, P. S., Kennedy, M. J., Long, C. B., Morris, J. H., O’Keeffe, W. G., Parkes, M., Ryan, P. D., Sloan, R. J., Stillman, C. J., Tietzsch-Tyler, D., Todd, S. P., & Wrafter, J. P., 1991. An appraisal of Caledonian suspect terranes in Ireland. Irish Journal of Earth Sciences 11, 11–41.Google Scholar
Parkes, M. A., 1992. Caradoc brachiopods from the Leinster terrane (SE Ireland) – a lost piece of the lapetus puzzle? Terra Nova 4, 223–30.Google Scholar
Rasul, S. M., 1979. Acritarch zonation of the Tremadoc Series of the Shineton Shales, Wrekin, Shropshire, England. Palynology 3, 53–72.Google Scholar
Robardet, M., Paris, F., & Racheboeuf, P. R., 1990. Palaeogeographic evolution of southwestern Europe during Early Palaeozoic times. In Palaeozoic Palaeogeography and Biogeography (eds McKerrow, W. S., and Scotese, C. R.), pp. 411–19. Geological Society, London, Memoir no. 12.Google Scholar
Roberts, B., Morrison, C., & Hirons, S., 1990. Low grade metamorphism of the Manx Group, Isle of Man: a comparative study of white mica ‘crystallinity’ techniques. Journal of the Geological Society, London 147, 271–7.Google Scholar
Roberts, D. E., 1992. Raven Crags and Mungrisdale. In Caledonian Structures in Britain (ed. Treagus, J. E.), pp. 70–3. Joint Nature Conservation Committee. London: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Romano, M., 1980. The Ordovician rocks around Herbertstown (County Meath) and their correlation with the succession at Balbriggan (County Dublin), Ireland. Journal of Earth Sciences, Royal Society of Dublin 3, 205–15.Google Scholar
Rose, W. C. C., 1955. The sequence and structure of the Skiddaw Slates in the Keswick-Buttermere area. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 65, 403–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, W. C. C., & Dunham, K. C., 1977. Geology and hematite deposits of south Cumbria. Economic Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain Sheets 58, and southern part of sheet 48.Google Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A., 1985). A Lancefieldian graptolite from the Lake District. Geological Magazine 122, 329–33.Google Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A., 1988. Tremadoc trilobites from the Skiddaw Group in the English Lake District. Palaeontology 31, 677–98.Google Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A., 1993. Graptolites from the Manx Group. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 49, 259–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A., & Molyneux, S. G., 1989. The biostratigraphic age of the Ordovician Skiddaw Group in the Black Combe inlier, English Lake District. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 47, 267–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scotese, C. R., & McKerrow, W. S., 1990. Revised World maps and introduction. In Palaeozoic Palaeogeography and Biogeography (eds McKerrow, W. S., and Scotese, C. R.), pp. 1–21. Geological Society, London, Memoir no. 12.Google Scholar
Scotese, C. R., & Mckerrow, W. S., 1991. Ordovician platetetonic reconstructions. In Advances in Ordovician Geology (eds Barnes, C. R., and Williams, S. H.), pp. 271–82. Geological Survey of Canada, paper 90–9.Google Scholar
Sedgwick, A., 1832. On the geological relations of stratified and unstratified groups of rocks composing the Cumbrian mountains. Proceedings of the Geological Society of London 1, 399–401.Google Scholar
Simpson, A., 1963. The stratigraphy and tectonics of the Manx Slate Series, Isle of Man. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 119, 367–400.Google Scholar
Simpson, A., 1967. The stratigraphy and tectonics of the Skiddaw Slates and the relationship of the overlying Borrowdale Volcanic Series in part of the Lake District. Geological Journal 5, 391–418.Google Scholar
Skevington, D., 1970. A Lower Llanvirn graptolite fauna from the Skiddaw Skates, Westmorland. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 37, 395–444.Google Scholar
Todd, S. P., Murphy, F. C., & Kennan, P. S., 1991. On the trace of the Iapetus suture in Ireland and Britain. Journal of the Geological Society, London 148, 869–880.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wadge, A. J., 1972. Sections through the Skiddaw-Borrowdale unconformity in eastern Lakeland. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 39, 179–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wadge, A. J., 1978. Classification and stratigraphical relationships of the Lower Ordovician Rocks. In The geology of the Lake District (ed. Moseley, F.), pp. 68–78. Yorkshire Geological Society, Occasional Publication no. 3.Google Scholar
Wadge, A. J., Nutt, M. J. C., Lister, T. R., & Skevington, D., 1969. A probable Didymograptus murchisoni Zone fauna from the Lake District. Geological Magazine 106, 595–8.Google Scholar
Wadge, A. J., Nutt, M. J. C., & Skevington, D., 1972. Geology of the Tarn Moor Tunnel in the Lake District. Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Great Britain 41, 55–73.Google Scholar
Ward, J. C., 1876. The geology of the northern part of the English Lake District. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain.Google Scholar
Webb, B. C., 1990. The Buttermere Formation (Skiddaw Group) in the Robinson area. In The Geology of the Lake District (ed. F., Moseley), pp. 74–82. The Geologists’ Association.Google Scholar
Webb, B. C., 1992. Hassness and Goat Crags. In Caledonian Structures in Britain (ed. Treagus, J. E.), pp. 58–63. Joint Nature Conservation Committee. London: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Webb, B. C., & Cooper, A. H., 1988. Slump folds and gravity slide structures in a Lower Palaeozoic marginal basin sequence (the Skiddaw Group) N.W. England. Journal of Structural Geology 10, 463–72.Google Scholar
Wilson, A. A., & Cornwell, J. D., 1982. The IGS borehole at Beckermonds Scar, North Yorkshire. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 44, 59–88.Google Scholar
Woodcock, N. H., 1990. Sequence stratigraphy of the Palaeozoic Welsh Basin. Journal of the Geological Society, London 147, 537–547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woolacot, D., 1923. On a boring at Roddymore Colliery, near Crook, Co. Durham. Geological Magazine 60, 50–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, T. P., 1990. Ordovician sedimentary facies and faunas of Southwest Europe: palaegeographic and tectonic implications. In Palaeozoic Palaeogeography and Biogeography (eds McKerrow, W. S. and Scotese, C. R.), pp. 421–30. Geological Society memoir no. 12.Google Scholar