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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

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