Geology of NY74NE, NW and NY75NE, SW and SE, Alston, Cumbria
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Geology of NY74NE, NW and NY75NE, SW and SE, Alston, Cumbria Geology and Landscape Northern Britain Programme Open Report OR/07/032 BRITISH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY GEOLOGY AND LANDSCAPE NORTHERN BRITAIN PROGRAMME OPEN REPORT OR/07/032 Geology of NY74NE, NW and NY75NE, SW and SE, Alston, Cumbria The National Grid and other Ordnance Survey data are used with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Licence No: 100017897/ 2008. S. M. Clarke Keywords Geology, NY74NE, NY74NW, NY75, Northumberland, Cumbria. National Grid Reference SW corner 370000,545000 Centre point 375000,552500 NE corner 380000,560000 Map Sheet 19, 1:50 000 scale, Hexham Bibliographical reference CLARKE, S. M. 2008. Geology of NY74NE, NW and NY75NE, SW and SE, Alston, Cumbria. British Geological Survey Open Report, OR/07/032. 51pp. Copyright in materials derived from the British Geological Survey’s work is owned by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and/or the authority that commissioned the work. You may not copy or adapt this publication without first obtaining permission. Contact the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Section, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, e-mail [email protected]. You may quote extracts of a reasonable length without prior permission, provided a full acknowledgement is given of the source of the extract. Maps and diagrams in this book use topography based on Ordnance Survey mapping. © NERC 2008. 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Vye over the period 2002 to 2003. Sheets NY74NE, NY75SE and NY75NE were surveyed by S. M. Clarke from 2002 to 2004. These areas constitute part of the resurvey of BGS 1:50 000-scale maps of Hexham and Alston (England and Wales Series sheets 19 and 25 respectively). This report covers all 5 1:10 000-scale sheets and includes a synopsis of field notes by S. M. Clarke and C. L. Vye, with palaeontological descriptions by M. T. Dean. This work was carried out as part of the Northern England – Alston Block Project (E2007S71). Grid references The area covered by this report lies within Ordnance Survey British National Grid square NY. References given to specific exposures and locations are quoted to six or eight figures as appropriate. References to named shafts and adits are derived from ground survey where these features can be positively identified on the ground, otherwise, they have been taken from Dunham (1990). In all cases, the prefix NY is omitted from the reference and should be assumed. Acknowledgements The author gratefully acknowledges the co-operation of all landowners within the area and with special thanks to the staff of Whitfield Estate who where extremely helpful throughout the survey of their land. i OR/07/032; Draft 0.1 Last modified: 2007/12/17 14:05 Contents Acknowledgements....................................................................................................................................................... i Contents ....................................................................................................................................................................... ii Summary.....................................................................................................................................................................iii 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 1.1 Geography................................................................................................................................................. 4 1.2 Previous work............................................................................................................................................ 4 2 Geological Summary .......................................................................................................................................... 5 3 Carboniferous bedrock ...................................................................................................................................... 6 3.1 cyclothems and Sequence Stratigraphy ..................................................................................................... 6 3.2 Carboniferous nomenclature ..................................................................................................................... 7 3.3 Visean (Mississippian) rocks: Alston Formation ...................................................................................... 7 3.4 Serpukhovian to Bashkirian (Namurian) rocks: Stainmore Formation ................................................... 20 4 Intrusive igneous rocks .................................................................................................................................... 31 5 Structure............................................................................................................................................................ 31 5.1 Regional dip and folding ......................................................................................................................... 32 5.2 Faulting ................................................................................................................................................... 32 6 Mineralisation................................................................................................................................................... 37 7 Superficial deposits........................................................................................................................................... 39 7.1 Glacial Till .............................................................................................................................................. 39 7.2 Glaciofluvial deposits.............................................................................................................................. 40 7.3 Alluvium and alluvial terraces................................................................................................................. 40 7.4 Peat.......................................................................................................................................................... 41 7.5 Erosional features and meltwater channels ............................................................................................. 41 8 Mass-movement and Artificial deposits.......................................................................................................... 42 8.1 Landslide................................................................................................................................................. 42 8.2 Artificial ground...................................................................................................................................... 43 9 Economic Geology ............................................................................................................................................ 44 9.1 Minerals................................................................................................................................................... 44 9.2 Coal ........................................................................................................................................................