Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T18:02:32.455Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dating the Cambrian Purley Shale Formation, Midland Microcraton, England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2013

MARK WILLIAMS ,
ADRIAN W. A. RUSHTON ,
ALAN F. COOK ,
JAN ZALASIEWICZ ,
ADAM P. MARTIN ,
DANIEL J. CONDON  and
PAUL WINROW
MARK WILLIAMS*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
ADRIAN W. A. RUSHTON
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottinghamshire NG12 5GG, UK
ALAN F. COOK
Affiliation:
75 Church Lane, Nuneaton, Warwickshire CV10 0EY, UK
JAN ZALASIEWICZ
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
ADAM P. MARTIN
Affiliation:
NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK
DANIEL J. CONDON
Affiliation:
NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK
PAUL WINROW
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK
*
†Author for correspondence: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Zircons from a bentonite near the base of the Purley Shale Formation in the Nuneaton area, Warwickshire, yield a 206Pb/238U age of 517.22 ± 0.31 Ma. Based on the fauna of small shelly fossils and the brachiopod Micromitra phillipsii in the underlying Home Farm Member of the Hartshill Sandstone Formation, trilobite fragments that are questionably referred to Callavia from the basal Purley Shale Formation, and the presence of trilobites diagnostic of the sabulosa Biozone 66 m above the base of the Purley Shale Formation, the bentonite likely dates an horizon within Cambrian Stage 3, at about the level of the Fallotaspis or basal Callavia Biozone. This is consistent with bentonite ages from other localities in southern Britain, which constrain the age of the lower and uppermost parts of Cambrian Stage 3. The new date provides additional chronological control on the earliest occurrence of trilobites in the Midland Microcraton, a date for the marine transgression at the base of the Purley Shale Formation, and is the first radiometric age from the Cambrian succession of Warwickshire.

Keywords

Cambrianradiometric agetrilobitesAvaloniastratigraphygeochronology
Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 150 , Issue 5 , September 2013 , pp. 937 - 944
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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

Bergström, J. 1973. Classification of olenellid trilobites and some Balto-Scandian species. Norsk Geologisk Tidsskrift 53, 283–314.Google Scholar
Brasier, M. D. 1984. Microfossils and small shelly fossils from the Lower Cambrian Hyolithes Limestone at Nuneaton, English Midlands. Geological Magazine 121, 229–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brasier, M. D. 1986. The succession of small shelly fossils (especially conoidal microfossils) from English Precambrian–Cambrian boundary beds, Geological Magazine 123, 237–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brasier, M. D. 1989. Sections in England and their correlation. In The Precambrian–Cambrian Boundary (eds Cowie, J. W. & Brasier, M. D.), pp. 82–104. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brasier, M. D., Anderson, M. M. & Corfield, R. M. 1992. Oxygen and carbon isotope stratigraphy of early Cambrian carbonates in southeastern Newfoundland and England. Geological Magazine 129, 265–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brasier, M. D., Hewitt, R. A. & Brasier, C. J. 1978. On the Late Precambrian – Early Cambrian Hartshill Formation of Warwickshire. Geological Magazine 115, 21–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bridge, D. McC., Carney, J. N., Lawley, R.S. & Rushton, A. W. A. 1998. Geology of the Country Around Coventry and Nuneaton. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, sheet 169 (England and Wales). London: The Stationery Office, 185 pp.Google Scholar
Cobbold, E. S. 1919. Cambrian Hyolithidae, etc., from Hartshill in the Nuneaton district, Warwickshire. Geological Magazine (Decade 6) 6, 149–58, pl. 4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cobbold, E. S. 1921. The Cambrian horizons of Comley (Shropshire) and their Brachiopoda, Pteropoda, Gasteropoda, etc. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London 76, 325–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cocks, L. R. M. 2008. A Revised Review of British Lower Palaeozoic Brachiopods . Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society, vol. 161, no. 629, 276 pp, 10 pls.Google Scholar
Eastwood, T., Gibson, W., Cantrill, T. C. & Whitehead, T. H. 1923. The Geology of the Country Around Coventry. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, sheet 169 (England and Wales). London: HMSO, 149 pp.Google Scholar
Harvey, T. H. P., Williams, M., Condon, D. J., Wilby, P. R., Siveter, D. J., Rushton, A. W. A., Leng, M. J. & Gabbott, S. 2011. A refined chronology for the Cambrian succession of southern Britain. Journal of the Geological Society, London 168, 705–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinz, I. 1987. The Lower Cambrian microfauna of Comley and Rushton, Shropshire/England. Palaeontographica Abt A198, 41–100, 15 pls.Google Scholar
Holl, H. B. 1865. On the geological structure of the Malvern Hills and adjacent districts. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London 21, 72–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Illing, V. C. 1913. Recent discoveries in the Stockingford Shales near Nuneaton. Geological Magazine (Decade 5) 10, 452–3.Google Scholar
Jaffey, A. H., Flynn, K. F., Glendenin, L. E., Bentley, W. C. & Essling, A. M. 1971. Precision measurement of half-lives and specific activities of 235U and 238U. Physics Reviews C4, 1889–906.Google Scholar
Landing, E. 1991. Upper Precambrian through Lower Cambrian of Cape Breton Island: faunas, paleoenvironments, and stratigraphic revision. Journal of Paleontology 65, 570–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landing, E. 1995. Upper Placentian–Branchian Series of mainland Nova Scotia (middle–upper Lower Cambrian): faunas, paleoenvironments, and stratigraphic revision. Journal of Paleontology 69, 475–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landing, E. 1996. Avalon: insular continent by the latest Precambrian. Geological Society of America, Special Paper 304, 29–63.Google Scholar
Landing, E. 2012. Time-specific black mudstones and global hyperwarming on the Cambrian–Ordovician slope and shelf of the Laurentia palaeocontinent. Palaeogeography, Palaeogeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 367–8, 256–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landing, E. & Benus, A. P. 1988. Stratigraphy of the Bonavista Group, south-eastern Newfoundland: growth faults and the distribution of the sub-trilobitic Lower Cambrian. In Trace Fossils, Small Shelly Fossils, and the Precambrian–Cambrian Boundary (eds Landing, E., Narbonne, G. M. & Myrow, P.), pp. 59–71. Bulletin of the New York State Museum no. 463.Google Scholar
Landing, E., Bowring, S. A., Davidek, K. L., Westrop, S. R., Geyer, G. & Heldmaier, W. 1998. Duration of the Early Cambrian: U–Pb ages of volcanic ashes from Avalon and Gondwana. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 35, 329–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loughlin, J. D. & Hillier, R. D. 2011. Early Cambrian Teichichnus-dominated ichnofabrics and palaeoenvironmental analysis of the Caerfai Group, Southwest Wales, UK. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 297, 239–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matley, C. A. 1902. On the Cambrian brachiopods of the Malvern Hills. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London 58, 135–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattinson, J. M. 2005. Zircon U–Pb chemical abrasion (“CA-TIMS”) method: combined annealing and multi-step partial dissolution analysis for improved precision and accuracy of zircon ages. Chemical Geology 220, 47–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peng, S.-C. & Babcock, L. E. 2008. Cambrian Period . In The Concise Geologic Time Scale (eds Ogg, J. G., Ogg, G. & Gradstein, F. M.), pp. 37–46. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Powell, J. H., Glover, B. W. & Waters, C. N. 2000. Geology of the Birmingham Area. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, Sheet 168 (England and Wales). London: The Stationery Office, 132 pp.Google Scholar
Pringle, J. 1913. In Summary of Progress of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and the Museum of Practical Geology for 1912, p. 71. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A. 1966. Cambrian Trilobites from the Purley Shales of Warwickshire. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society, London no. 511, 55 pp.Google Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A. 1974. The Cambrian of Wales and England. In Cambrian of the British Isles, Norden and Spitsbergen (ed. Holland, C.H.), pp. 42–122. J. Wiley & Son.Google Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A., Brück, P. M., Molyneux, S. G., Williams, M. & Woodcock, N. H. 2011. A Revised Correlation of the Cambrian Rocks in Britain and Ireland. Special Report of the Geological Society of London no. 25, 62 pp.Google Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A., Owen, A. W., Owens, R. M. & Prigmore, J. K. 1999. British Cambrian to Ordovician Stratigraphy. Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Geological Conservation Review no. 18 [issued 2000], 435 pp.Google Scholar
Schmitz, M. D. & Schoene, B. 2007. Derivation of isotope ratios, errors, and error correlations for U–Pb geochronology using 205Pb–235U–(233U)-spiked isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometric data. Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 8, doi:10.1029/2006GC001492.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siveter, D. J. & Williams, M. 1995. An early Cambrian assignment for the Caerfai Group of South Wales. Journal of the Geological Society 152, 221–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, J. D. D. & White, D. E. 1963. Cambrian trilobites from the Purley Shales of Warwickshire. Palaeontology 6, 397–407.Google Scholar
Taylor, K. & Rushton, A. W. A. 1971. The Pre-Westphalian Geology of the Warwickshire Coalfield. Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Great Britain no. 35, [issued 1972], 150 pp.Google Scholar
Woodcock, N. 2011. Terranes in the British and Irish Cambrian. In A Revised Correlation of the Cambrian Rocks in Britain and Ireland (eds Rushton, A. W. A., Brück, P. M., Molyneux, S. G., Williams, M. & Woodcock, N. H.), pp. 16–20. Special Report of the Geological Society of London no. 25.Google Scholar