Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-04T14:47:12.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Lower Carboniferous Limestone Knolls of Clitheroe, Lancashire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Donald Parkinson
Affiliation:
6 Clowes Avenue, Southbourne, Bournemouth, Hants.

Abstract

The problem of the genesis of these biohermal structures is re-examined to test the hypothesis that they are bank sediments and not knoll-reefs. The study is based largely on the field work of the Geological Survey (Earp et al., 1961). It is argued that depositional dips have not been increased by differential compaction and it is demonstrated, by elimination of the tectonic component of the existing divergent dips, that original dips locally exceeded 60 degrees. It follows that the knolls possessed some rigidity of frame and the term “reef” seems appropriate. It is argued that the Worsaw and Twiston knolls rose upwards of 600 feet above the surrounding muds.

The conclusions of the Clitheroe Memoir that certain beds of the Worston Shale Group formerly thought to post-date the knoll limestone are in fact of the same age is accepted, but it is argued that these sediments, which are not differentiated from other deposits by the Survey officers, follow a non-sequence.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1967

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

REFERENCES

Bathurst, R. G. C., 1959. The cavernous structure of some Mississippian Stromatactis reefs in Lancashire, England. J. Geol., 67, 506521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black, W. W., 1952. The origin of the supposed tufa bands in Carboniferous reef limestones. Geol. Mag., 89, 195200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black, W. W., 1953. Critical sections in a Carboniferous reef knoll. Geol. Mag., 90, 345352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black, W. W., 1954. Diagnostic characters of the Lower Carboniferous knoll-reefs in the north of England. Trans. Leeds Geol. Ass., 6, 262297.Google Scholar
Earp, J. R., Magraw, D., Poole, E. G., Land, D. H., and Whiteman, A. J., 1961. Geology of the country around Clitheroe and Nelson. Mem. geol. Surv. U.K., 9 + 346 pp.Google Scholar
Jones, O. T. 1944. The compaction of muddy sediments. Q. Jl geol. Soc. Lond., 100, 137160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kornicker, L. S., and Boyd, D. W., 1962. Shallow-water geology and environments of Alacran reef complex, Campeche Bank, Mexico. Bull. Am. Ass. Petrol. Geol., 46, 640673.Google Scholar
Ladd, H. S., Tracey, J. I., Wells, J. W., and Emery, K. O., 1950. Organic growth and sedimentation on an atoll. J. Geol., 58, 410425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowenstam, H. A., 1950. Niagaran reefs of the Great Lakes area. J. Geol., 58, 430487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parkinson, D., 1926. The faunal succession in the Carboniferous Limestone and Bowland Shales at Clitheroe and Pendle Hill. Q. Jl geol. Soc. Lond., 82, 188249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parkinson, D., 1935. The geology and topography of the limestone knolls in Bolland (Bowland), Lanes and Yorks. Proc. Geol. Ass., 46, 97120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parkinson, D., 1936. The Carboniferous succession in the Slaidburn district, Yorkshire. Q. Jl geol. Soc. Lond., 92, 294331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parkinson, D., 1944. The origin and structure of the Lower Viséan reef-knolls of the Clitheroe district, Lancashire. Q. Jl geol. Soc. Lond., 99, (for 1943), 155168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parkinson, D., 1950. Some features of the Lower Carboniferous reef limestones of Clitheroe, Lancashire. Geol. Mag., 87, 337350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parkinson, D., 1957. Lower Carboniferous reefs of Northern England. Bull. Am. Ass. Petrol. Geol., 41, 511537.Google Scholar
Parkinson, D., 1964. Problematic fabrics in the Carboniferous limestones of Dovedale. Mercian Geologist, 1, 4959.Google Scholar
Pray, L. C., 1958. Fenestrate bryozoan core facies, Mississippian bioherms, Southwestern United States. J. sedim. Petrol., 28, 261273.Google Scholar
Skempton, A. W., 1944. Notes on the compressibility of clays. Q. Jl geol. Soc. Lond., 100, 119135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Terzaghi, R. D., 1940. Compaction of lime mud as a cause of secondary structure. J. sedim. Petrol., 10, 7890.Google Scholar
Tiddeman, R. H., 1889. On concurrent faulting and deposition in Carboniferous times in Craven, Yorkshire, with a note on Carboniferous reefs. Rep. Br. Ass. Advmt. Sci. (Newcastle), 600–3.Google Scholar
Wells, J. W., 1957. Coral reefs. Treatise on marine ecology and palaeo-ecology, vol. 1. Mem. geol. Soc. Am., 67, 609631.Google Scholar