Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x24gv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-08T15:26:22.940Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Lower Cambrian Wrekin Quartzite and the age of its unconformity on the Ercall Granophyre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

A. E. Wright ,
I. J. Fairchild ,
F. Moseley  and
C. Downie
A. E. Wright
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, U.K.
I. J. Fairchild
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, U.K.
F. Moseley
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, U.K.
C. Downie
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Sheffield, Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 3JD, U.K.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Acritarchs of Lower Cambrian age have been recovered from a clay horizon within conglomerates 6 m above the unconformity described by Cope & Gibbons (1987). The Wrekin Quartzite (34 m thick) represents beach deposits grading upwards into shelf sandstones. The stratigraphie evidence and recent age determinations suggest that although the granophyre was intruded at 560 ± 1 Ma the Cambrian Unconformity is younger than 533 ± 13 Ma.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 130 , Issue 2 , March 1993 , pp. 257 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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

Anderton, R. 1976. Tidal-shelf sedimentation: an example from the Scottish Dalradian. Sedimentology 23, 429–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bath, A. H. 1974. New isotopic data on rocks from the Long Mynd, Shropshire. Journal of the Geological Society 130, 567–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bland, B. H. 1984. Arumberia Glaessner & Walter, a review of its potential for correlation in the region of the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary. Geological Magazine 121, 625–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cobbold, E. S. 1927. The stratigraphy and geological structure of the Cambrian area of Comley (Shropshire). Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 83, 551–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Compston, W., Williams, I. S., Obradovich, J. D. & Patchett, P. J. 1984. Zircon U-Pb age of the Ercall Granophyre. Terra Cognita Special Issue Abstracts of ECOG VIII, 40.Google Scholar
Compston, W., Williams, I. S., Kirschvink, J. L., Zhang, Zichao & Ma, Guogan. 1992. Zircon U-Pb ages for the Early Cambrian time-scale. Journal of the Geological Society 149, 171–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cope, J. C. W. & Gibbons, W. 1987. New evidence for the relative age of the Ercall Granophyre and its bearing on the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary in southern Britain. Geological Journal, 22, 53–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowie, J. W., Rushton, A. W. A. & Stubblefield, C. J. 1972. A correlation of Cambrian rocks in the British Isles. Special Report, Geological Society of London 2, 42 pp.Google Scholar
Cowie, J. W. & Johnson, M. R. W. 1985. Late Precambrian and Cambrian geological time-scale. Memoir, Geological Society of London 10, 47–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fairchild, I. J. & Herrington, P. M. 1989. A tempestite-evaporite-stromatolite association (late Vendian, East Greenland): a shoreface-lagoon model. Precambrian Research 43, 101–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harland, W. B., Armstrong, R. L., Cox, A. V., Craig, L. E., Smith, A. G. & Smith, D. G. 1990. A Geologic Time Scale 1989. Cambridge University Press, 263 pp.Google Scholar
Jankauskas, T. V. 1976. In Jankauskas, T. V. & Posti E. 1976. Novye vidy akritark kembriyas Pribaltiki. (New Cambrian acritarchs from the East Baltic area). Eesti NSV Teaduste, Akadeemia Toimetised, Geologia, 25, 2, 145–151, p. 149.Google Scholar
Jankauskas, T. V. & Posti, E. 1976. New species of Acritarchs from the Cambrian of the Baltic Region. Izvestia Akademia Nauk Estonia. SSR, tom 25, Chimiya, Geologiya, no. 2, p. 5.Google Scholar
Kiryanov, V. V. 1974. Novye akitarki iz kembrijskikh otlozhenji Volyni. (New acritarchs from the Cambrian deposits of Volhynia). Paleontologicheskij Zhurnal Z., 117–30, p. 35.Google Scholar
Kiryanov, V. V. 1979. In Volkova, N. A., Kiryanov, V. V., Piskun, L. V., Paskeviciene, L. T. & Yankauskas, T. V., 1979. Rastitelnye mikrofossilii (Plant microfossils). In N. A. Volkova et al., Paleontologiya verkhnedokembriiskikh i kembriiskikh otlozhenii vostochno-Evropeiskoi platformy. (Upper Precambrian and Cambrian palaeontology of the east European Platform). Akademiya Nauk SSSR, Ordena Trudovogo Krasnogo Znameni Geologicheskii Institut, Izdatelstvo Nauka, Moskva, pp. 4–38. Published English translation dated 1983 by Wydawnictwa Geologiczne, Warsaw, pp. 7–47.Google Scholar
Khomentovsky, V. V. 1986. The Vendian system of Siberia and a standard stratigraphie scale. Geological Magazine 123, 333–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mens, K. & Pirrus, E. 1986. Stratigraphical characteristics and development of Vendian-Cambrian boundary beds on the east European Platform. Geological Magazine 123, 357–60.Google Scholar
Moczydlowska, M. & Vidal, G. 1988. How old is the Tommotian. Geology 16, 166–8.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moczydlowska, M. 1991. Acritarch biostratigraphy of the Lower Cambrian and the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary in southeastern Poland. Fossils and Strata 29, 1–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naeser, C. W., Toghill, P. & Ross, R. J. 1982. Fission-track ages from the Precambrian of Shropshire. Geological Magazine 119, 213–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Odin, G. S., Gale, N. H. & Dore, F. 1985. Radiometric dating of Late Precambrian. Memoir, Geological Society of London, 10, 65–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patchett, P. J., Gale, N. H., Goodwin, R. & Humm, M. J. 1980. Rb-Sr whole-rock isochron ages of Late Precambrian to Cambrian igneous rocks from southern Britain. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 137, 649–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peat, C.J. 1984. Precambrian microfossils from the Longmyndian of Shropshire. Proceedings of the Geologists Association, 95, 17–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pocock, R. W., Whitehead, T. H., Wedd, C. B. & Robertson, T. 1938. The Shrewsbury District, including the Handwood Coalfield. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, 297 pp.Google Scholar
Snelling, N. J. 1985. An interim time-scale. Memoir, Geological Society of London, 10, 261–65.Google Scholar
Thorpe, R. S., Beckinsale, R. D., Patchett, P. J., Piper, J. D. A., Davis, G. R. & Evans, J. A. 1984. Crustal growth and late Precambrian-early Palaeozoic plate tectonic evolution of England and Wales. Journal of the Geological Society 141, 521–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tucker, R. D. & Pharaoh, T. C. 1991. U-Pb zircon ages for date Precambrian igneous rocks in Southern Britain. Journal of the Geological Society 148, 435–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, P. 1979. Diagenetic origin of Cambrian marine red beds: Caerfai Shales, Dyfed, Wales. Sedimentary Geology 24, 269–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vidal, G. 1981. Micropalaeontology and biostratigraphy of the Lower Cambrian sequence in Scandinavia. In Short papers for the Second International Symposium on the Cambrian System 1981 (ed. Taylor, N. E.) pp. 232–5. U.S. Geological Survey, Open-File Report, 81–742.Google Scholar
Volkova, N. A., Gnilovskaya, M. B., Lendzien, K., Kiryanov, V. V., Palii, V. M., Pashkyavichene, L. T., Piskun, L. V., Posti, E., Rozanov, A. Y., Urbanek, A., Fedonkin, M. A. & Jankauskas, T. V. 1979. Upper Pre-cambrian and Cambrian Palaeontology of East-European Platform. Academy of Science of the USSR. Izdatelstvo ‘Nauka’ Moscow, 1–210.Google Scholar
Wright, A. E. 1980. The Precambrian of England and Wales. In Owen, T. R. (Ed.). United Kingdom, Introduction to General Geology. 26th International Geological Congress Guide Book (ed. Owen, T. R.), pp. 14–18. London: Institute of Geological Sciences.Google Scholar
Wright, J. E. 1968. The geology of the Church Stretton Area (Explanation of 1:25000 Geological Sheet SO49). London: Institute of Geological Sciences.Google Scholar