Peak District and north Staffordshire
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Published:January 01, 2011
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CiteCitation
C. N. Waters, N. S. Jones, J. D. Collinson, B. M. Besly, 2011. "Peak District and north Staffordshire", A Revised Correlation of Carboniferous Rocks in the British Isles, C. N. Waters, I. D. Somerville, N. S. Jones, C. J. Cleal, J. D. Collinson, R. A. Waters, B. M. Besly, M. T. Dean, M. H. Stephenson, J. R. Davies, E. C. Freshney, D. I. Jackson, W. I. Mitchell, J. H. Powell, W. J. Barclay, M. A. E. Browne, B. E. Leveridge, S. L. Long, D. McLean
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Abstract
Carboniferous rocks within this area occupy the region to the south of, and contiguous with, the Southern Pennines (see Chapter 11). The oldest Tournaisian and Visean strata occur at outcrop within the Peak District, represented by ramp-to-shelf carbonates (Peak Limestone Group) deposited on the Derbyshire High, a promontory of the East Midlands Shelf, and the laterally extensive Staffordshire and Hathern shelves. The platform carbonates of the East Midlands Shelf extend in the subsurface below Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, where the nature of the succession is based largely upon well records and geophysical information (Strank 1987). A 23 m thick succession of platform carbonates is recorded in the base of the Saltfleet by No. 3 Borehole [TF 4246 9135] (Hodge 2003) and at least 100 m is present in the Welton Oil-field (Fig. 31). The Derbyshire High platform carbonate rocks pass into more basinal successions in the Edale Basin to the north, the Widmerpool Gulf to the south and the Staffordshire Basin to the west, dominated by hemi-pelagic mudstone and carbonate turbidites (Craven Group). The lithostratigraphical nomenclature for the Tournaisian and Visean strata is that of Waters et al. (2009), adapted from Aitkenhead & Chisholm (1982).
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A Revised Correlation of Carboniferous Rocks in the British Isles

The report revises and expands upon the 1976 and 1978 publications for the Dinantian and Silesian, respectively, combining them into a single account of British and Irish Carboniferous stratigraphy. The need to update the two Special Reports reflects the considerable advances in Carboniferous geology over the last 30 years. The report covers developments in international chronostratigraphy and incorporates wholesale reassessments of British lithostratigraphy. A huge volume of biostratigraphical information has been published over recent decades and the report summarizes the key information.
Carboniferous rocks have long been of economic importance, but it is the search for hydrocarbons, in its infancy at the time of the previous reports, which has greatly increased our understanding of Carboniferous successions offshore and at depth, particularly in southern and eastern England.