Subsidence and sedimentation in the Northumberland Trough

Abstract

SUMMARY The Northumberland Trough has been recognised as a major east-west structural unit across northern England for almost a hundred years. Lying between the Northern Pennine Block to the south and the Southern Uplands of Scotland ridge to the north, the Trough stretches across Britain from the North Sea to the Solway Firth. Two basins have been described within the Trough – the Northumberland Basin in the east and the Solway Basin in the west. The basins are believed to be separated by a shelf, with shallow basement running northwards and continuing the line of the Pennine ridge across north-east Cumbria. The Bewcastle anticline is regarded as a drape over this basement high. The oldest deposits proved in the basins are Chadian (Lower Carboniferous), with no confirmed record of the lowest Courceyan Stage. A complete sequence of more than 3 km of Dinantian and Silesian sediments is known, ranging up to late Westphalian D. Strong differential subsidence in the Northumberland Basin came to an end in the Namurian, and the Westphalian was laid down under conditions of uniform epeirogenic downwarping that effected the marginal blocks in the same way as the Trough. The Solway Basin had very similar Dinantian deposition, but subsidence was more variable in the Silesian and persisted longer, at least until the late Westphalian. Shallow marine and deltaic sedimentation characterise deposition in both basins, with subsidence and rate of deposition having been approximately equal. Marine transgressions and deltaic regressions were a major feature of deposition and caused the development of well-ordered sedimentary cycles of coalbelt type. Four phases of trough filling can be recognised: 1. Progressive marine transgression. 2. Gradual marine regression. 3. Upper delta plain sedimentation. 4. Emergence, with lacustrine sedimentation.

Shale‐gas Potential of the Mid‐carboniferous Bowland‐hodder Unit in the Cleveland Basin (Yorkshire), Central Britain

“…Platform areas in northern England from north to south are the Cheviot, Alston, Askrigg and Market Weighton blocks; these are separated by the Northumberland, Stainmore-Cleveland and Bowland-Craven-Pennine-Leeds basins (Gawthorpe et al, 1989;Dean et al, 2011). In the latest Early Carboniferous (Asbian-Brigantian) to early Namurian (sequences EC4 through LC1a/b), deltas gradually advanced and prograded southwards from the Scottish Borders 6RXWKHUQ 8SODQGV UHJLRQ GHSRVLWLQJ PXGURFN sandstone units across shallow-water carbonates (Johnson, 1984;Dean et al, 2011). As a result of RUELWDOO\IRUFHG VHDOHYHO ÀXFWXDWLRQV QXPHURXV a Yoredale "cycles" were generated, comprising shallow-marine limestone passing up into prodelta mudrock then delta-front and delta-plain sandstones, locally with coals (Tucker et al, 2009).…”

Emplacement of the Great Whin Dolerite Complex and the Little Whin Sill in relation to the structure of northern England

“…From here northwards to Bamburgh [NY 175 350] the Whin remains at or near the Great Limestone close to the North Sea coast and forming the Fame Islands offshore. Perhaps significantly, this region lies over the Cheviot Block where the Carboniferous succession is thinner than in the basins to the north and south (Johnson 1984). At Bamburgh, the strike of the Whin sheets changes direction to north-west and heads inland where they drop down the succession again in irregular transgressions.…”

The sedimentology of the Middle and Upper Border groups (Viséan) in the Stonehaugh Borehole, Northumberland

“…The sedimentary and tectonic evolution of the Northumberland Trough during Carboniferous times has recently been summarised by Johnson (1984) and Leeder etal. (1989).…”