The Peak Trough – a major control on the geology of the North Yorkshire coast

Abstract

Although the Mesozoic sediments of the Cleveland Basin (North Yorkshire) have generally not been strongly faulted, several approximately N-S trending faults have been identified along the coast. New seismic data from adjacent coastal waters has allowed the offshore extension to the fault system to be examined for the first time. The coastal faults from Peak (Ravenscar) to Red Cliff (Cayton Bay) are shown to form part of a linked system defining a narrow graben only some 5 km wide, the Peak Trough. Faulting has been complex, with decollement levels apparently developed in weak layers at various horizons in the Triassic and Permian strata: fault geometries and regional considerations suggest that extension has been dominant. Movement occurred intermittently from Triassic to latest Cretaceous or early Tertiary times.

Fault and fracture patterns in low porosity chalk and their potential influence on sub-surface fluid flow—A case study from Flamborough Head, UK

“…The Peak Trough is a N-S-trending, extensional, Jurassic fault system. Similarly to the Howardian-Flamborough Fault Belt, the Peak Trough Fault System was also reactivated during the Cenozoic during the inversion of the Cleveland Basin (Milsom and Rawson, 1989).…”

Natural fractures in a United Kingdom shale reservoir analog, Cleveland Basin, northeast England

“…2a) in the vicinity of our study area took place during Early, Middle and Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous times (Milsom and Rawson, 1989). Field relationships (Howarth, 1962;Alexander, 1986;Alexander and Gawthorpe, 1993) and interpretations of seismic reflection profiles (Milsom and Rawson, 1989) demonstrate that changes in sediment thickness and/or facies take place across these faults within the Lower Jurassic Whitby Mudstone and Middle Jurassic Saltwick formations. These observations suggest that movements on the Runswick Bay, Whitby…”

“…Fraser and Gawthorpe, 2003). For example, seismic reflection profiles presented by Milsom and Rawson (1989) suggest that the Peak fault -the largest Jurassic syn-sedimentary fault exposed within the Cleveland Basin -detaches on the underlying Triassic shales and Zechstein (Permian) evaporites.…”

“…Outside the Peak Trough (a NNW-SSE striking graben bounded by the syn-sedimentary Peak fault; Milsom and Rawson, 1989) Gad et al (1968), the proportions of sand (> 50 μm), silt (2 to 50 μm) and clay (< 2 μm) particles in the Cement shale are 1.5 %, 45.0 % and 53.5 %, respectively.…”

Dinosaur-plant interactions within a Middle Jurassic ecosystem—palynology of the Burniston Bay dinosaur footprint locality, Yorkshire, UK

“…1b). The Scalby Formation represents fluvio-deltaic conditions (Leeder and Nami 1979;Fisher and Milsom and Rawson (1989); Mjøs and Prestholm (1993); Palliani and Riding (2000); Rawson and Wright (2000). b Subdivision of the Middle Jurassic of Yorkshire.…”