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The age of the Watch Hill Grits (Ordovician), English Lake District: structural and palaeogeographical implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

S. G. Molyneux  and
A. W. A. Rushton
S. G. Molyneux
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, U. K.
A. W. A. Rushton
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, U. K.
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Abstract

The Watch Hill Grits, in the lower Ordovician Skiddaw Group of the Lake District, are dated as latest Tremadoc or earliest Arenig (older than the Didymograptus deflexus Biozone) by means of acritarchs and graptolites. This places them lower in the Skiddaw sequence than previous authors supposed, and they are thought to have been thrust southwards over younger Arenig rocks. The interval inferred for the Watch Hill Grits brackets the Tetragraptus approximatus Biozone and its equivalents in Australasia, S China, N America and Scandinavia. The dating of the Watch Hill Grits suggests that equivalents of the Tetragraptus approximatus Biozone are present in N England and that sedimentation continued in the Lake District during a period of global eustatic regression. Other beds in the Lake District and on the Isle of Man have yielded similar acritarch assemblages and are probably correlatives. Five new acritarch taxa are described: Caldariola gen. nov., Acanthodiacrodium? dilatum, Stellechinatum sicaforme and Striatotheca prolixa spp. nov., and Tetraniveum arenigum cumbriense subsp. nov.; one new combination, Caldariola glabra (Martin) comb, nov., is proposed.

Keywords

acritarchsapproximatus Biozoneeustatic regressiongraptolitesSkiddaw GroupTremadoc–Arenig boundary
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 79 , Issue 1 , 1988 , pp. 43 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1988

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