Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T02:14:44.913Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

II.—On upright Equisetites Stems in the Oolitic Sandstone in Yorkshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

T. G. Halle
Affiliation:
Stockholm

Extract

Stems of Ecquisetites columnaris (Brong.) have long been known to occur in a vertical position in the sandstones of the Inferior Oolite on the Yorkshire coast. This mode of occurrence has commonly been held as proving that the stems are preserved in the position in which they once grew, having been buried in situ beneath the layers of sand that accumulated on the spot. On the other hand, it has been argued that the upright position need not be primary; it might be as readily explained if the stems are regarded as drifted and secondarily deposited on the spots where they are now found. It is well known and has been pointed out, particularly in the discussions of the upright stems in the Coal-measures, that a drifting tree often has a tendency to sink in a vertical position, the root-end being heavier because of adhering mineral matter or from some other reason. Phillips describes, in his Geology of the Yorkshire Coast, a locality at High Whitby where upright stems of Equisetites columnaris occur in the sandstone. He continues: “They … are broken off or imperfect above, and seldom reach to the upper surface of the bed; they are also broken off below, but commonly pass to the lower surface; and some of the lower joints nearest the roots are found in the subjacent bed of shale.”

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1913

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

page 4 note 1 Phillips, J., Illustrations to the Geology of Yorkshire, pt. i, The Yorkshire Coast, 3rd ed., p. 143, London, 1875.Google Scholar

page 4 note 2 Seward, A. C., Fossil Plants, vol. i, p. 72, 1897.Google Scholar

page 5 note 1 Reed-bed.

page 5 note 2 The stratigraphical conditions will be described in professor Kendall's paper.