Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T17:35:04.440Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Liassic palaeofault from Dorset

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

H. C. Jenkyns
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Durham
J. R. Senior
Affiliation:
Department of Extra-mural Studies, University of Durham

Summary

Evidence is presented for Liassic (Toarcian) faulting at Watton Cliff in coastal W Dorset. This movement is inferred from the abrupt changes in thickness of the Junction Bed and contiguous strata given that the contact with the overlying shale and clay is horizontal. Further evidence for synsedimentary movement is manifested by the presence, in the palaeofault zone, of numerous calcilutite-filled fissures penetrating a coarser, more sandy matrix. These neptunian dykes and sills contain abundant ammonites of the middle to late Toarcian, presumably the time of fault movement. This onshore Jurassic palaeofault broadens the known extent of such features from Sutherland (Brora—Helmsdale Fault) and Yorkshire (Peak Fault) to include southern Britain.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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

Arkell, W. J. 1933. The Jurassic System in Great Britain. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 681 pp.Google Scholar
Bathurst, R. G. C. 1971. Carbonate Sediments and their Diagenesis. Develop Sedimentol. 12, 620 pp.Google Scholar
Bailey, E. B. & Weir, J. 1932. Submarine faulting in Kimmeridgian time: East Sutherland Trans. R. Soc. Edinb. 47, 431–67.Google Scholar
Baud, A. & Masson, H. 1975. Preuves d'une tectonique liasique de distension dans le domaine briançonnais: failles conjuguées et paléokarst à Saint-Triphon (Préalpes Médianes, Suisse). Eclog. Geol. Helv. 68, 131–45.Google Scholar
Bernoulli, D. & Jenkyns, H. C. 1974. Alpine, Mediterranean and central Atlantic Mesozoic facies in relation to the early evolution of the Tethys. In Dott, R. H. & Shaver, R. H. (Eds): Modern and ancient geosynclinal Sedimentation, Spec. Publ. Soc. econ. Paleont. Miner. 19, 129–60.Google Scholar
Buckman, S. S. 1901. Bajocian and contiguous deposits in the North Cotteswolds. The main Hill Mass. Q. Jl geol. Soc. Lond. 57, 126–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buckman, S. S. 1922. Jurassic chronology. II: Preliminary Studies. Certain Jurassic strata near Eypesmouth (Dorset); the Junction Bed of Watton Cliff and associated rocks. Q. Jl geol. Soc. Lond. 78, 378436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casey, F. 1971. Facies, faunas and tectonics in Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous Britain. In: Middlemiss, F. A., Rawson, P. F. & Newall, G. (Eds): Faunal Provinces in Space and Time, pp. 153–68. Seel House Press, Liverpool.Google Scholar
Castellarin, A. 1965. Filoni sedimentari nel Giurese di Loppio (Trentino meridionale). Gior. Geologia, ser. 2, 33, 527–46.Google Scholar
Chesher, J. A. & Bacon, M. 1975. A deep seismic survey in the Moray Firth. Rept. Ints. geol. Sci. 75/11, 13 pp.Google Scholar
Coadou, A. & Beaudoin, B. 1973. Manifestations tectoniques du Lias moyen au Dogger dans les chaînes subalpines méridionales. C. r. somm. Séances Soc. géol. Fr. 6, 236–8.Google Scholar
Dalrymple, G. B., Grommé, C. S. & White, R. W. 1975. Potassium—argon age and paleomagnetism of diabase dikes in Liberia: Initiation of central Atlantic rifting. Bull. geol. Soc. Am. 86, 399411.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Day, E. C. H. 1893. On the Middle and Upper Lias of the Dorsetshire Coast. Q. Jl geol. Soc. Lond. 19, 278–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewey, J. F., Pitman, W. C., Ryan, W. B. F. & Bonnin, J. 1973. Plate tectonics and the evolution of the Alpine system. Bull. geol. Soc. Am. 84, 3137–80.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hallam, A. 1975. Jurassic Environments. Cambridge University Press. 269 pp.Google Scholar
Hemingway, J. E. 1974. The Jurassic. In Rayner, D. H. & Hemingway, J. E. (Eds): The Geology and Mineral Resources of Yorkshire. Yorks. Geol. Soc. pp. 161223.Google Scholar
Hudson, J. D., Sellwood, B. W. & Jenkyns, H. C. 1976. Discussion of basins and swells in the British Jurassic. Q. Jl geol. Soc. Lond. 132, 227232.Google Scholar
Jackson, J. F. 1922. Sections of the Junction-Bed and contiguous deposits. Appendix to Jurassic Chronology, II, by S. S. Buckman. Q. Jl geol. Soc. Lond. 78, 436–48.Google Scholar
Jackson, J. F. 1926. The Junction-Bed of the Middle and Upper Lias on the Dorset Coast. Q. Jl geol. Soc. Lond. 82, 490525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kendall, A. C. & Tucker, M. E. 1973. Radiaxial fibrous calcite: a replacement after acicular carbonate. Sedimentology. 20, 365–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kent, P. E. 1975. Review of North Sea Basin development. Q. Jl geol. Soc. Lond. 131, 435–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milliman, J. D. 1974. Marine Carbonates. 375 pp. Springer-Verlag, New York.Google Scholar
Pitman, W. C. & Talwani, M. 1972. Sea-floor spreading in the North Atlantic. Bull. geol. Soc. Am. 83, 619–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plancherel, R. & Weidmann, M. 1972. La zone anticlinale complexe de la Tinière (Préalpes médianes vaudoises). Ecol. Geol. Helv. 65, 7591.Google Scholar
Sellwood, B. W. & Jenkyns, H. C. 1975. Basins and swells and the evolution of an epeiric sea (Pliensbachian—Bajocian of Great Britain). Q. Jl geol. Soc. Lond. 131, 373–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, A. G. 1971. Alpine deformation and the oceanic areas of the Tethys, Mediterranean and Atlantic. Bull. geol. Soc. Am. 82, 2039–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Surlyk, F., Callomon, J. H., Bromley, R. G. & Birkelund, T. 1973. Stratigraphy of the Jurassic—Lower Cretaceous sediments of Jameson Land and Scoresby Sund, East Greenland. Grønlands Geol. Unders. 105, 76 pp.Google Scholar
Trümpy, R. 1960. Paleotectonic evolution of the Central and Western Alps. Bull. geol. Soc. Am. 71, 843908.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wendt, J. 1971. Genese und Fauna submariner sedimentärer Spaltenfüllungen im mediterranen Jura. Palaeontographica, A, 136, 122–92.Google Scholar
Wilson, V., Welch, F. B. A., Robbie, J. A. & Green, G. W. 1958. Geology of the country around Bridport and Yeovil. Mem. geol. Surv. G.B. 239 pp.Google Scholar
Ziegler, P. A. 1975. North Sea Basin history in the tectonic framework of northwestern Europe. In Woodland, A. W. (Ed). Petroleum and the Continental Shelf of North-west Europe. Volume 1. Geology, pp. 131–49.Google Scholar
Ziegler, W. H. 1975. Outline of the geological history of the North Sea. In: Woodland, A. W. (Ed.) Petroleum and the Continental Shelf of North-west Europe. Volume 1. Geology, pp 165–87.Google Scholar