British geologist William Conybeare (1787-1857)
The
Carboniferous System of rocks were named in 1822, by William Daniel Conybeare (1787 – 1857), after their high carbonaceous content in the form of the
Coal Measures. These beds were laid down between c.360 million and 299 million years ago in a variety of different environments. The early
Tournasian and
Viséan Stages thick fossiliferous marine limestones (
Mountain Limestone) were laid down in a sea of varying depth, these are exposed in Upper Teesdale and on the Pennine Uplands. A Middle episode, the
Namurian, saw closer proximity of a landmass resulting in the deposition of massive sandstones with occasional mudstones and shell-beds dubbed the
Millstone Grit. Further uplift saw the district transformed into a low-lying heavily vegetated delta-marsh, the fallen trunks of
Palaeozoic trees forming the economically-important
Coal Measures of the
Westphalian stage.
Within the Tees Valley and Darlington these rocks are only sparsely exposed, and then only in the far north-west of the Darlington district. Here can be found a few outcrops of massively-bedded coarse-grained Namurian sandstones of the Millstone Grit dating back to c.307 million years ago.
A rare outcrop of Carboniferous Grit in a disused quarry at Haughton-le-side north west of Darlington.
Permian »
©2011 Tees Valley RIGS Group.
Upper Carboniferous
British geologist William Conybeare (1787-1857)
The Carboniferous System of rocks were named in 1822, by William Daniel Conybeare (1787 – 1857), after their high carbonaceous content in the form of the Coal Measures. These beds were laid down between c.360 million and 299 million years ago in a variety of different environments. The early Tournasian and Viséan Stages thick fossiliferous marine limestones (Mountain Limestone) were laid down in a sea of varying depth, these are exposed in Upper Teesdale and on the Pennine Uplands. A Middle episode, the Namurian, saw closer proximity of a landmass resulting in the deposition of massive sandstones with occasional mudstones and shell-beds dubbed the Millstone Grit. Further uplift saw the district transformed into a low-lying heavily vegetated delta-marsh, the fallen trunks of Palaeozoic trees forming the economically-important Coal Measures of the Westphalian stage.
Within the Tees Valley and Darlington these rocks are only sparsely exposed, and then only in the far north-west of the Darlington district. Here can be found a few outcrops of massively-bedded coarse-grained Namurian sandstones of the Millstone Grit dating back to c.307 million years ago.
A rare outcrop of Carboniferous Grit in a disused quarry at Haughton-le-side north west of Darlington.
Permian »
©2011 Tees Valley RIGS Group.