Hot (Positively Volcanic!!) News - Volcanic Dust from Iceland falling out near Nottingham Monday 19th April

Click here to see Noel Worley's photomicrograph and details

2010 Field Meetings Programme (172nd Session of the Society)

August (date to be confirmed): Wadsley Fossil Forest, Sheffield, led by Ken Dorning

11th September 10.30am to 5pm.: Field excursion to N. Yorks. coast, centred on Burniston, led by Martin Whyte and Mike Romano, University of Sheffield

Meet: Small car park at Crook Ness [TA 026 935]. This is approachable from Burniston, via Rocks Lane which is a small turning off the A165 just north of the junction with the A171. Please note that there is only room for approximately ten cars and that additional overflow parking is only available about 1.5 km away near the A165.

Clothing and Safety: Stout footwear and waterproof clothing are essential. The beach is a mixture of gravel, boulders and rock, the latter commonly covered with slippery seaweed. Low tide will be at approximately 13.00 hrs, which will allow safe access to, and exit from, the exposures. There are no toilet facilities at the car park or on the beach. Total walking distance during the day not more than 4 km. Please bring a packed lunch and drinks as we will be out all day.

We will examine the excellent coastal outcrops in Burniston Bay, where the Middle Jurassic Scalby Formation is exposed. The Scalby Formation is the uppermost non-marine unit of the Ravenscar Group. The leaders will demonstrate the wide range of sedimentary features within the fluviatile sequence and discuss our current research into this part of the succession. We will also examine the variety of dinosaur footprints that characterise this part of the Middle Jurassic and which have lead to the epithet ‘Dinosaur Coast’.

Contact details: If you have any queries please contact Mar tin Whyte at m.a.whyte@sheffield.ac.uk

For further details of these (and maps and photos) see the 2010 Field Meetings Guide (Circular No. 560) - now on line at http://www.yorksgeolsoc.org.uk/circulars/560.pdf

Preliminary details of Programme for the rest of 2010

Saturday 23rd October 2010 2pm - 5pm at the University of Hull: Modern Geological Techniques (Joint Meeting with the Hull Geological Society):
speakers will include Mike Rogerson, Derek Siviter, Laurance Donnelly

Abstract of Derek Siviter's lecture: Virtual Fossils: Silurian Soft-Bodied Sensations released from the Rock

The Herefordshire Lagerstätte is a unique fossil deposit of Silurian age (about 425 million years old). The millimetre to centimetre scale fossils are preserved in concretions in marine-deposited volcanic ash.  They are remarkable in that not only biomineralized shells are preserved, but also soft-bodied invertebrates, and these in spectacular three-dimensional detail.  Soft-bodied fossils belonging to the earlier Cambrian Period, from deposits such as the Burgess Shale, have revolutionised our understanding of the early evolution of multicellular life and the spectacular diversification known as the ‘Cambrian Explosion’.   However, soft-bodied faunas from the Silurian are largely unknown, and the Herefordshire fauna thus provides us with a previously unavailable window into a community from the aftermath of the Cambrian Explosion.

Soft-bodied fossils are usually compressed to two dimensions, and must be reconstructed artistically to an approximation of their original form. The unusual three-dimensional nature of the Herefordshire fossils, in contrast, has enabled an innovative and more direct approach.  Specimens are ground away and imaged using digital photography. These serial ‘slices’ are then combined by computer to reconstruct the animal in minute detail as a three-dimensional model that can be examined interactively on screen. These models combine the roles of original specimen and illustrative reconstruction, and enable the fauna to be studied through ‘virtual palaeontology’.  The computer reconstruction can even be turned into a physical model through rapid prototyping technologies.

IMAGE:  The Herefordshire Lagerstätte arthropod Offacolus kingi (ventral oblique view)

Saturday 28th November: University of Leeds Weetwood Hall:
Annual General Meeting, Presidential Address Part 2 by Paul Wignall, and President's Reception Buffet & Speeches

Invitation to Special Event: Annual Winch Descents of Gaping Gill, Ingleborough: Saturday 21st to Monday 30th August 2010

The Craven Pothole Club (based in Skipton) will be holding its annual winch meet at Gaping Gill on Ingleborough - associated with the Yorkshire Geological Society since 1899. 
In more recent time geophysical studies (GPR, micro-gravity etc.) have been carried out in this famous cave system by many UK universities including Leeds University.
 
The Club says: "So if you feel like doing something a bit different please come up to see us. All that is required are stout boots, and waterproofs. The chamber has some
lighting and a team of enthusiastic amateur geologists/experienced cavers will guide you around. Please come as early in the day as you can to avoid having to queue and note
that we finish winching by mid-day Bank Holiday Monday so it is better to come on an earlier date."
 
Details of the visit can be obtained on the Club's website: http://www.cravenpotholeclub.org/ or from the event leader: Dr John Helm <gapinggill@cravenpotholeclub.org>

Follow the instructions on the next screen and complete parts A and B.  In part B, you will need to set your own user name and password, which you will use when you next login
to the Proceedings site in the Lyell Collection. Once you have activated your subscription, you will be able to browse the PYGS archive.
For subsequent access, go direct to the PYGS site on the Lyell Collection web site at http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/

Latest part of Proceedings of Yorkshire Geological Society (vol. 58 pt. 1 May 2010) now published: Contents and Abstracts

Cover illustration: Robin Hood's Bay from Ravenscar: see J.H. Powell: Jurassic sedimentation in the Cleveland Basin: a review ( in this Part)

I. Metcalfe and N. J. Riley: Conodont Colour Alteration pattern in the Carboniferous of the Craven Basin and adjacent areas, northern England

SUMMARY: Conodont Colour Alteration Indices (CAI) values in the Craven area show a general range of 2.5-3.5, the majority being a value of 3. The higher values generally occur in the south and south-west and low values are found on the Ashnott High (Ashnott Anticline and eastern closure of the Whitewell Anticline) and in Waulsortian limestones. These values are consistent with the limited vitrinite reflectance data and are a result of the Carboniferous sedimentary and tectonic history of the region. There is no evidence of significant modification by subsequent burial, igneous events, reheating or mineralization. Low values of CAI 2-2.5 on the Ashnott High are interpreted to be due to the thinner sedimentary cover in that area and possible insulation derived from underlying Waulsortian limestones. Relatively high values of CAI 4 for Dinantian strata in the Holme Chapel Borehole and 3.5 in the Silesian sediments to the south of the Craven Basin probably reflect a thicker Westphalian cover than further north.

S. K. Donovan and D. N. Lewis: Aspects of crinoid palaeontology, Much Wenlock Limestone Formation, Wenlock Edge, Shropshire (Silurian)

SUMMARY: Fossil crinoids are common in the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation of the type area in Shropshire, yet remain poorly known because of their fragmentary preservation. Calceocrinid disparids are recognized from Wenlock Edge for the first time on the basis of distinctive brachial ossicles. More proximal brachials have a broad, U-shaped adoral groove and an axial canal; distal ossicles have a narrower, V-shaped adoral groove and no axial canal. What remains surprising is that the most distinctive element of the calceocrinid endoskeleton, the fused basal circlet, remains unknown from Wenlock Edge.

A crinoid pluricolumnal displaying an irregular line of three pits that show a progressive increase in size was infested while the crinoid was alive; this is indicated by the swollen column and deformities of columnals. Such infestations are rare in the British Silurian. The pits may have been made by a single infesting organism which migrated up or down the column in response to the influence of gravity.

S. K. Donovan and T. A. M. Ewin: Crinoid roots from the Upper Devonian of north Devon: morphology, function and systematics

SUMMARY: A small collection of well-preserved crinoid attachment structures from the Upper Devonian Pilton Formation of north Devon indicates the presence of two distinct species. Sostronocrinus mundus (Whidborne) lived attached to an unlithified sedimentary substrate by the vertical insertion of a robust, terminal rhizoidal holdfast abetted by robust, unbranched radices oriented laterally or curved distally. There was a strong differentiation of morphology between the radicular attachment and the more proximal column, which lacked radices. Eumorphocrinus porteri (Whidborne) attached to a similar substrate by an irregularly heteromorphic, tapering radicular runner bearing branched radices that promoted permanent attachment close to the sediment surface. These radices were probably developed on at least part of the more proximal column. The highest columnals of the dististele do not bear radices and, therefore, are not nodals. The dististele was previously unknown in both of these species.

J. H. Powell: Jurassic sedimentation in the Cleveland Basin: a review

SUMMARY: This review combines two Presidential Addresses (2005, 2006) and aims to provides an up-to-date overview of the stratigraphy and sedimentation of the Jurassic sequence of the Cleveland Basin (Yorkshire), including poorly known data from the western outcrop. These fascinating rocks have been the focus of geological research since the 18th Century and have had a profound influence on the development of the geological sciences. Throughout the 20th Century, the excellent coastal exposures have acted as a magnet for palaeontologists, stratigraphers, sedimentologists and geochemists, as a natural geological laboratory, and in recent decades, the coastal exposures received increased scientific interest as a result of their analogy with hydrocarbon source and reservoir rocks in the North Sea. Designation of the international Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the Sinemurian-Pliensbachian stage boundary in Robin Hood's Bay, the establishment of the Dinosaur Coast, and development of the Rotunda Museum in Scarborough have all given the regional geology additional importance.

The Lias Group (Hettangian-Toarcian age; 199.6-175.6 Ma), exposed in the well known coastal sections, is illustrated by the fully cored Felixkirk Borehole, located at the western margin of the outcrop, and is one of the best examples of shallow marine sedimentation in an epeiric shelf-sea setting. It comprises two large-scale, upward coarsening cycles, namely the Redcar Mudstone to Staithes Sandstone cycle, followed by the Cleveland Ironstone to Blea Wyke Sandstone cycle. Within this broad pattern, smaller scale transgressive-regressive cycles are described from stratigraphically expanded and reduced successions. Detailed ammonite biostratigraphy provides a finely calibrated temporal framework to study the variations in sedimentation, which include storm-generated limestones and sandstones ('tempestites') interbedded with mudstone deposited during fair-weather periods. Hemipelagic mud, occasionally organic-rich, reflects deeper-water anoxic events that may indicate a response to global climate change.

In cores, the tempestite beds (Hettangian-Sinemurian) are characterized by sharp bases that, at outcrop, are often masked by downward penetrating burrows. Cyclicity on a centimetre scale in the overlying Pliensbachian 'Banded Shales' may be the result of orbitally induced, climatic cycles. Gradational upward coarsening to the Staithes Sandstone Formation marks a transition to sand-rich tempestite deposits, characterized by low angle and swaley cross-lamination, interbedded with sand-starved units (striped sfltstones). The sands were probably deposited from sediment-laden, storm-surge and ebb currents in inner- and mid-shelf settings; the sandy substrate was, at some levels, extensively bioturbated by deposit feeding organisms that produced a spectacular range of trace fossil assemblages characteristic of shoreface, inner-, mid-, and outer-shelf settings. Intrabasinal tectonics was a controlling factor during deposition of both the Staithes Sandstone and the overlying Cleveland Ironstone (Late Pliensbachian). The influx of sand is attributed to hinterland uplift and increased sediment flux. More marked intraformational uplift during deposition of the Cleveland Ironstone is manifested in a much attenuated succession in the west of the basin (Felixkirk); southwards, towards the Market Weighton High, the Pecten/Main Seam of the ironstone oversteps unconformably onto progressively older beds to rest on the lower part of the Redcar Mudstone Formation. Ironstone, in the form of berthierine ooids and sideritic mud, was deposited during 5-6 cycles (in coastal exposures) of high sea-level stands that cut off siliciclastic influx from the low-gradient hinterland; regressive, upward-shoaling intervals are marked by interbedded, bioturbated siltstone and fine-grained sandstone.

The Toarcian succession (Whitby Mudstone and Blea Wyke Sandstone formations) continues the second upward coarsening cycle in response to increased subsidence, rising sea-level, and an influx of siliciclastic sand. Oxygenated, open marine mud was deposited during the initial deepening phase, followed by bituminous mud, attributed to ocean-water stratification and the establishment of anoxic bottom conditions; in the west of the basin an upward shoaling sequence suggests that water depths were not as great. Recent research on the geochemistry and stable isotope signatures across this early Toarcian interval indicates a widespread, global anoxic event, possibly attributed to the release of methane hydrate on the ocean floor. The Alum Shale Member represents increasingly oxygenated bottom conditions and an upward coarsening motif with passage to the Blea Wyke Sandstone Formation, which is preserved only in the Peak Trough, an actively subsiding graben. Basin uplift accompanied by gentle folding id late Toarcian to Aalenian times removed much of the late Toarcian succession so that the Middle Jurassic Dogger Formation lAalenian), a complex, condensed, shallow water unit rests unconformably on beds as low as the Alum Shale over much of the basin.

Deep boreholes and revision mapping by the British Geological Survey (BGS) in the west of the outcrop have allowed a fuller, basin-wide synthesis of the palaeoenvironments and the influence of intra-Jurassic tectonics during Mid- to Late Jurassic times. During Mid-Jurassic times the low-lying, paralic coastal plain, typified by braided and meandering fluvial systems and lacustrine deposits was invaded by marine incursions from the south and east. Each transgressive event was different in its geographical penetration across the coastal plain, resulting in varied lithofacies and palaeoenvironments including ooidal ironstone and lime mud lEDer Beck Formation), peloid and ooid carbonate shoals (Lebberston Member), and tidal sand bars, pelloidal limestones and •earshore marine muds (Scarborough Formation). Trace fossils, including dinosaur footprints, and macro-plant fossils tell us much about the palaeoenvironments on the coastal plain, during this time interval (175.6-164.7 Ma) that was characterized by a warm, seasonal climate.

The basin wide transgression and marked global sea-level rise represented by the Cornbrash Formation, marks deposition in a shallow marine environment during the Calloviaii, followed by sand (Osgodby Formation) and deeper water muds (Oxford Clay Formation) that spread northwards from the East Midlands over the Market Weighton High during the Oxfordian. Subsequent Aallowing of the basin resulted in the establishment of a carbonate/siliciclastic platform typified by ooidal shoals, coral patch reefs and sponge spicule-rich marine sands (Corallian Group). Their complex sedimentation pattern was influenced by local infra-Oxfordian tectonics related to the Howardian-Flamborough Fault Belt. Although the Ampthill Clay and Kimmeridge Clay formations, the latter representing the most important regional hydrocarbon source rock, are not well-exposed, recent boreholes in the Cleveland Basin have allowed a much better understanding of the hemi-pelagic marine environment (both oxic and anoxic) during this phase of sedimentation which marks a global sea-level rise. Although well-studied by world standards, the Jurassic sediments of the Cleveland Basin continue to throw up surprises and advances in our understanding of the Earth as a dynamic system over a period of c. 30 million years. These studies have directly and indirectly influenced our understanding of the Earth as a system, and have played an important role in educating non-specialists, undergraduates and professional geologists over many decades.

Obituary: Frank Moseley (1922-2009)

Society Proceedings, 2009

A major Yorkshire Geological Society Publication!

Carboniferous Hydrocarbon Geology: the southern North Sea and surrounding onshore areas

edited by

John Collinson, David Evans, Doug Holliday & Neil Jones, 2005

Click here for full details and samples
of the full colour illustrations!

Price now reduced to £10 plus £5 p. & p. Cheques should be made payable to Yorkshire Geological Society. Please send your order form to: Dr J H Powell, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG

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Important Notice to Members and others:
Short Communications: Proceedings and Circular/Web Site

Rapid publication of short papers is common amongst journals, particularly those published weekly, monthly or bi-monthly, as a way of disseminating information quickly on topical or contentious issues, exceptional new discoveries or major developments.   Given its publication schedule, the adoption of such a publication strategy is not appropriate for the Proceedings.  Nevertheless, as a way of encouraging the membership to make more use of the Proceedings, and for that matter the Society’s other vehicles for publication, the Circular and web site, Council would welcome more short communications. Short communications submitted to the Proceedings might include anything for which it would be worth having a permanent published record, for example descriptions of new and/or temporary exposures.  Those intended for the Circular or web site could include more topical or newsworthy items, including brief reports of field meetings, new fossil/mineral occurrences, photographs of interesting geological features with a brief description or the work of RIGS groups. Short communications to the Proceedings should not exceed two published pages, approximately 2,000 words (or equivalents including figures) and will be subject to the normal review and editorial procedures, although a Summary will not be necessary. Please send your contributions in the usual manner to the Editors (see ‘Instructions to Authors’ in the PYGS as a general guideline).

For the A5 format of the Circular (and web site), contributions should be 300-400 words, but can include colour photographs and figures; these will also be subject to editorial review. These items should be sent to the Circular Editor in the first instance (see back page of the Circular for details).

Stewart Molyneux, Principal Editor PYGS
Keith Park, YGS Circular Editor
Patrick Boylan, YGS Web Editor

New edition 2004 with minor revisions: price £9.99 plus £2.00 postage and packing Click here for further details

Tuesday 19th October - Frank Cox on "Climate change from a Geologist's viewpoint".

Saturday 23rd October - joint afternoon meeting on New Techniques in Geology with Yorkshire Geological Society at Hull University (see YGS Programme above) 

Saturday 30th October - "Quaternary Techniques Workshop" led by Mike Horne, Rodger Connell and Stuart Jones (booking required before 1st October, there may be a small fee)

Thursday 11th November - Prof Paul Wignall of the University of Leeds & YGS President - "Permian extinctions: death by fire"

Saturday 27th November - "Microfossils Workshop" led by Mike Horne, Patty McAlpin and Stuart Jones (booking required, there may be a small fee)

Thursday 9th December - Roger Sutcliffe - "Limestone, the only rock you can see from the inside".

Thursday 20th January 2011 - Mike Horne - "Felix Whitham and his contributions to science".

Thursday 17th February 2011 - Dr Mark Woods of the British Geological Survey - "The Chalk and climate change - the greenhouse connection"
".
Thursday 17th March 2011 - Presidential Address by Stuart Jones and the Annual General Meeting

LANCASHIRE GROUP OF THE GEOLOGISTS’ ASSOCIATION: Secretary: Jennifer Rhodes, e-mail: sjrhodes@hotmail.com