Rivers Through Geological Time (Devon)
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RIVERS THROUGH Group, which took place in arid continental conditions with sporadic high precipitation GEOLOGICAL TIME giving rise to ephemeral fluvial conditions with coarse sediment transport and the building of The Geologists’ Association Two Day extensive outwash fans. Later finer sediment Meeting 2012 deposition of the Aylesbeare Group in temporary lakes was followed by coarser 13 and 14 October 2012, The Royal Albert sediments of the Budleigh Salterton Pebble Memorial Museum, Exeter Beds resulting from east-west extension in this area. Richard Pollock Malcolm Hart ended the morning session with This one day conference consisted of lectures a fascinating discussion on some of the and posters devoted to fluvial rocks, vertebrate finds from the mid-Triassic Otter sediments and environments as represented Sandstone Formation. The Otter Sandstone throughout the geological column. It was starts with a series of aeolian sandstone followed on the Sunday by a field excursion passing upwards into a series of river channel visiting localities revealing Triassic, deposits flowing northwards. This sequence has yielded a number of Rhynchosaur Pleistocene and Holocene fluvial sediments. vertebrate remains. The morning session started with a series of six lectures on the older and harder rocks and The afternoon session concentrated on the highlighted the fundamental differences Tertiary fluvial systems of southern England between the predominance of braided systems starting with Andrew Newell setting the scene in the Pre-Cambrian to Silurian and the later on the Palaeogene fluvial systems forming on dominance of meandering fluvial systems the ‘blank canvas’ of the Cretaceous Chalk. during the Devonian to the present day The other controlling features are the wet and predating the ‘greening of the continents’. warm tropical climate, a lowland river system Martin Gibling from Dalhousie University, influenced by the rise and fall of sea level and Halifax, Canada spoke on the landscape in tectonic compression related to Alpine Palaeozoic systems and Geraint Owen from mountain building. These all resulted in a Swansea University spoke on the complex series of Palaeogene fluvial Neoproterozoic Torridonian of NW Scotland. sediments forming the Reading and These systems both illustrate the sandstone Bracklesham Beds. rich sedimentation typical of this period. There followed three more talks on the more The late morning session concentrated on the modern fluvial sequences of the Pleistocene, more local Devonian to Triassic fluvial Holocene and Anthropocene across southern deposits in an around Devon, starting with an England and how they have been influenced example of a mud-dominated Old Red by landscape evolution, vertical crustal Sandstone fluvial system in south west Wales motions and properties and occupation by by Susan Marriott of the University of Bristol, Hominids. confirming the influence of vegetation. This was followed by Chris Cornford comparing the I was unable to listen to the final papers of the depositional similarities of the recent deltas of day, which comprised the importance and the Bideford Bay to the preserved added value of our river systems in Carboniferous sediments of the Westward Ho! repositories of vertebrate fossils, as important and Bideford Formations. Contrasting present petroleum reservoirs and closed with a and past allows a reinterpretation of the discussion on ‘Exeter and its river’. Bideford Formation as deposits of delta-top channels cutting intertidal mudflats. The last A poster session accompanying some of and two lectures of the morning session additional to the talks, including one by concentrated on the Permian and Triassic Elizabeth Devon ‘Rock Circus in the village of sediments close to Exeter. Richard Scrivenor Box, Wiltshire’. outlined the post Variscan Orogenic setting during the deposition of the Permian Exeter Journal of the Bath Geological Society, No. 31, 2012 28 RIVERS THROUGH GEOLOGICAL TIME FIELD TRIP Geologists' Association Conference, October 2012 Elizabeth Devon The conference was organised by the Junction of Otter Sandstone and Bud- leigh Salterton Pebble Beds Devonshire Association and the Geologists' Association. On Saturday we were treated to excellent lectures based on fluvial rocks, beach is now made of these pebbles. sediments and environments from Exquisite Ordovician fossils, brachiopods and Precambrian to Quaternary. Field trips to trilobites can be found in some of the pebbles. Budleigh Salterton, Lympstone and Bramford Speke were organised for Sunday. The At N50°37.650 W003°19.634 is the junction of following is a brief account of these visits the Otter Sandstone and BSPB, photo 1. The with GPS co-ordinates for anyone wishing to top of the BSPB is marked by a Triassic fossil visit the localities. soil deposit with dreikanters and desert varnish. The Otter Sandstone overlies it Budleigh Salterton unconformably and is shown dramatically by the yellow sandy-clay layer. The yellow colour This is the Triassic part of the 'Jurassic Coast is due to the reduction of ferric oxide minerals, World Heritage Site'. These dramatic red possibly by vegetation that was growing on the rock cliffs are distinctive and the geology surface. The Otter Sandstone is up to 120m here records conditions on land between 250 thick and is a red-brown fluvial sandstone and 200 million years ago. Although there mostly showing cross-bedding. These sands are no fossil clues, there are many other are an important aquifer in East Devon and the indicators that reveal desert environments main reservoir rock for the Wych oilfield to the with sand dunes, salt lakes, lagoons and east. rivers. Iron minerals have weathered to produce the spectacular colour of the cliffs A fault can be seen near this location, N50° and this is the first clue that these rocks 37.647 W003°19.634. formed in hot, arid conditions. If you walk west along the beach to around The Budleigh Salterton Pebble Beds N50°37.544 W003°19.946, you can see the Formation (BSPB), Lower, or possibly, continuation of the junction between the BSPB Middle Triassic in age, can be seen in the cliffs to the west of Budleigh Salterton. These cliffs are eroding fast so it is wise to view them from a distance. The BSPB include up to 26m. of red-brown horizontally- bedded gravel. The gravels of well-rounded pebbles, cobbles and boulders are dominantly metaquartzite, but vein quartz, sandstone, chert and other rocks can be found. The distinctive grey and brown metaquartzite pebbles are identical to 440 million year-old (Ordovician) pebbles, 250km away in Brittany. The pebbles were deposited here by a large braided river Fault in Otter Sandstone and system flowing north into the Triassic desert Budleigh Salterton Pebble Beds about 240 million years ago. The bulk of the Journal of the Bath Geological Society, No. 31, 2012 29 with the the Otter Sandstone Formation (Middle Triassic). Beneath the BSPB (masked by landslip) you can see the Littleham Mudstone Formation (late Permian, early Triassic age). It comprises red-brown mudstone and siltstone beds and may have formed in a lacustrine environment with periods of desiccation and the formation of evaporite minerals. The story told by the cliffs here is an interesting one as, at first we see a lacustrine environment with intermittent sandy deposits indicating cyclical change. This gives way to a huge deposit of river gravels from rivers from the south. After this, desert conditions prevail with wind-blown deposits and dreikanters and, Exe breccia, Lympstone maybe, a sparse cover of vegetation. The area then returns to a fluvial environment with huge deposits of cross-bedded sandstones. Lympstone Brampford Speke Turn down the lane in Lympstone at N50° At N50°46.559 W003°31.398 walk down the 38.860 W003°25.887. The locality is at N50° footpath. The village of Brampford Speke is 38.900 W003°26.011. The tides need to be built on river Terrace 4 (BGS), the gravels checked before visiting here. We were looking from which can be seen on the left of this at the Exe Breccia, uppermost unit of the Exeter Group, late Permian in age. It overlies the Dawlish Sandstone Formation which is dominantly a wind-blown deposit. The cliff section here shows interbedded units of orange-red sandstone and sedimentary breccia with clasts up to 10cm in the coarser units. Bedding is discontinuous and lensoid, with channelling evident in the coarse breccias. The matrix of many of the breccia beds appears to be dominated by fine sand and silt. The clasts include hard Culm Quaternary terrace on top of Exe (Carboniferous) sandstone and siltstone with Breccia more friable mudstone. We found fragments of vein quartz and hornfels and some quartz- porphyry. Fragments of k-feldspar footpath. Many pebbles are vertical because (murchisonite in some older publications) and of frost heave. At the bottom of the path, the granite have also been found but we were not Permian bedrock of the Exeter Group of New lucky. This deposit indicates a reactivation of Red Sandstone is exposed above the coarse clastic sediment deposition. Is this the floodplain. base of the Trias? The Exe Breccia indicates a braided system with lots of sediments, scour N50°46.692 W003°31.320 route marker marks and lag deposits. At about N50°46.752 W003°31.275, the At the top of the cliff, there is a Quaternary geomorphology of the Late Pleistocene river terrace overlying the Exe Breccia. It contains terraces and Holocene floodplain is well rounded clasts of Cretaceous flints. exposed. Both sides of the valley, seen to the east and west of the floodplain, are capped Journal of the Bath Geological Society, No. 31, 2012 30 with Terrace 4 deposits. In the Exe system, seen; we were fortunate in that all the recent Terrace 4 is separated from Terraces 1, 2 and wet weather had meant that these were filled 3; these lower three abut on the floodplain.