An Examination of the Ravenstonedale Group.
16 members assembled at Wath on A685 for a briefing by leader Noel Pearson who has done considerable research into the Lower Carboniferous of this area. Three separate localities had been identified to represent the stratigraphy, involving various levels of difficulty, but thankfully in dry and bright weather conditions.
1 A short visit to an exposure of bedrock in the track just above Flakebridge Farm allowed examination of an unconformity between steeply dipping Silurian mudstones and overlying low-angle Carboniferous sediments. This is a rare example of being able to stand with the gap between your feet representing a time gap of at least 50 million years.
2 A transfer by car took us to Pinksey Gill. After a brief explanation of the surrounding landscape from an elevated viewpoint, the group followed the stream bed upwards through the shallow water marine beds of the Pinksey Gill Formation and into the Marsett Formation. A change from the varied clastic and carbonate beds was noted with the outcrop of a conglomerate band which has been equated with that of the well-known Shap Wells unconformity, and marking a temporary regression.
3 After a stream-side lunch stop the party moved on to Ravenstonedale village and embarked on a section of the youngest sub-division of the Ravenstonedale Group, the Stone Gill Formation. This involved following the bedrock downstream, eventually into Stone Gill itself, and searching on the way for a variety of fossils, including bands of algal limestone, brachiopods, corals, gastropods and traces of burrows. The disappearance of the stream into underground drainage channels, extensive sections of dry stream bed and the reappearance of flowing water further down the gill was noted, and Noel outlined attempts to trace the sub-surface drainage using introduction of dyes (which were not then recorded at the expected point, clearly indicating a complex system below).
After a team effort negotiating stream crossings and the challenge of a watergate, Noel was thanked for the considerable preparation he had taken and the detailed explanation of the earliest Carboniferous beds in this part of Cumbria.
JR
