Sedimentology, architecture and depositional setting of the fluvial Spireslack Sandstone of the Midland Valley, Scotland: insights from the Spireslack surface coal mine
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Published:December 02, 2019
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CiteCitation
R. Ellen, M. A. E. Browne, A. J. Mitten, S. M. Clarke, A. G. Leslie, E. Callaghan, 2019. "Sedimentology, architecture and depositional setting of the fluvial Spireslack Sandstone of the Midland Valley, Scotland: insights from the Spireslack surface coal mine", River to Reservoir: Geoscience to Engineering, P. W. M. Corbett, A. Owen, A. J. Hartley, S. Pla-Pueyo, D. Barreto, C. Hackney, S. J. Kape
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Abstract
The Spireslack surface coal mine exposes a section in the Carboniferous Lawmuir Formation (Brigantian) into the Upper Limestone Formation (Arnsbergian). This paper describes the stratigraphy exposed at Spireslack and, in so doing, names for the first time the Spireslack Sandstone, a distinctive erosively based, sandstone-dominated unit in the Upper Limestone Formation. The Spireslack Sandstone consists of two fluvial sandstone channel sets and an upper, possibly fluvio-estuarine, succession. From an analysis of their internal architectural elements, the channel sets are interpreted as a low-sinuosity, sand-dominated, mixed-load fluvial system in which avulsion and variations in sediment load played a significant part. The lower channel set appears to be confined to erosional palaeovalleys of limited lateral extent and significant relief. The upper channel set is much more laterally extensive and shows evidence of a generally lower sediment load with a greater degree of lateral accretion and flooding. Consequently, the Spireslack Sandstone may represent a system responding to base level changes of higher magnitude and longer duration than the glacio-eustatic scale commonly attributed to Carboniferous fluvio-deltaic cycles. The Spireslack Sandstone may represent an important correlative marker in the Carboniferous of the Midland Valley and may provide an alternative analogue for some Carboniferous fluvial sandstone stratigraphic traps.
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River to Reservoir: Geoscience to Engineering
CONTAINS OPEN ACCESS

This volume brings together a number of papers from two workshops with the theme, ‘Rain, Rivers, Reservoirs’, which considered the dynamic changes to river systems as part of natural processes, particularly changing climatic conditions. Bringing researchers from two different locations to Brazil and the UK allowed scientists to contribute to and promote, ‘debate on current research…on how the planet works and how we can live sustainably on it’. This volume features a series of papers on the geoscience of modern and ancient rivers from across the world (Brazil, United States, Spain, Argentina, Canada, India and the UK), their evolution through time, their management, their deposits and their engineering, with both subsurface aquifers/hydrocarbon reservoirs (of Carboniferous, Triassic and Cretaceous age) and surface reservoirs considered.