Abstract The Mississippian Caney shale of the northern Arbuckle Mountains is differentiated into three new members, the Ahlosa, the Delaware Creek, and the Sand Branch, in ascending order. The change of the goniatite faunas from the Sand Branch down to the Delaware Creek is so complete as to suggest major time hiatus, being comparable to that between the goniatites of the lower Namurian and the upper Visean of Britain and western Europe. In the southern Arbuckle Mountains similar change is observed between the goniatites of the soft shale of the lower Goddard formation above, and those of the hard, siliceous “Caney” shale below. It is proposed to adjust the customarily accepted boundary between the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian in the northern and southern Arbuckle Mountains to the new faunal (chiefly goniatites and conodonts) and stratigraphic evidence, as follows. In the northern area the soft, non-bituminous, dark gray to gray shale with the ferruginous concretions remains wholly in the Pennsylvanian. However, in the southern Arbuckle Mountains most if not all of the soft Goddard shale with its abundant ferruginous concretions may be correlated by fossils with the upper part of the Caney shale of the northern Arbuckle Mountains (Sand Branch member). The Sand Branch is lithologically unlike the Goddard of the southern Arbuckles, being dark gray to black, and containing no ferruginous concretions; the lower Goddard of this area, however, contains two small lentils of siliceous shale similar to that of the Caney. New genus Edmooroceras is introduced for the American and European species of Eumorphoceras distinguished by a sharp and nodose umbilical edge. Edmooroceras is restricted to the basal part of the Eumorphoceras zone, and in the Barnett formation of Texas it mingles with Goniatites and Girtyoceras in an apparently very late Visean assemblage. The lowermost series of the Pennsylvanian, the Springer, is believed to start with the Rod Club sandstone. The newly named, richly fossiliferous Redoak Hollow sandstone is placed about 600 feet above the base of the Goddard shale and between two recently discovered Eumorphoceras horizons. The subsurface Goodwin sandstone may be the equivalent of the Redoak Hollow. The Primrose sandstone originally included in the Springer by Tomlinson, is added to the overlying Morrow series, and so correlated on the evidence of the goniatites, with the Union Valley formation of the northern Arbuckles, and the Hale formation of northwestern Arkansas. However, the basal part of the Primrose seems to be of pre-Hale age. A new name, Rhoda Creek, is applied to a somewhat sandy, fossiliferous unit below the Union Valley formation in the northern Arbuckle Mountains, and separated from it by a shale interval 100-300 feet thick. A local lentil of conodont-bearing siliceous shale occurs in the basal part of the Goddard shale, and two lentils of conodont-bearing shale occur in the Sand Branch formation. The conodonts from all these lentils are described, and their illustrations assembled together with the previously known conodonts from the Barnett formation (by Roundy and by Hass), the Delaware Creek formation (Caney conodonts by Branson and Mehl), and the Johns Valley and the Wapanucka formations (by Harlton). All conodonts are illustrated to a uniform scale, and arranged in stratigraphic order.

Abstract To the south of the Mississippian platform carbonate successions of South Wales (Chapter 5) and Bristol, Mendips and Somerset (Chapter 6), Carboniferous rocks predominantly occur within the strongly deformed Culm crop of SW England. The Culm Basin has a broad graben architecture, with an inner graben (Central Devon Sub-basin) fianked by half-grabens (Bideford and Launceston sub-basins) (Fig. 14; Leveridge & Hartley 2006; Waters et al. 2009). The Bideford Sub-basin is bounded to the north by the Brushford Fault, the Central Devon Sub-basin by the Greencliff Fault and the Launceston Sub-basin by the Rusey Fault. To the north of the Brush-ford Fault is the northern margin of the Culm Basin. The Tavy Basin has limited development of Famennian-Tournaisian strata. The Laneast High separating the Tavy Basin and Launceston Sub-basin includes a Tournaisian to ?Visean succession (Yeolmbridge and Laneast Quartzite formations). Remnants of Carboniferous strata also occur in the South Devon Basin. In many areas there is no clear lithological break between the Tournaisian and the underlying Upper Devonian rocks, both of which are dominated by shallow-marine and deeper-water mudstones. The succession, commonly referred to as the Transition Series or Group (Dearman & Butcher 1959; Freshney et al. 1972), are assigned to the Exmoor Group in north Devon, the Hyner Mudstone and Trusham Mudstone formations of the eastern part of the Central Devon Sub-basin and the Tamar Group in south Devon.

Abstract The Carboniferous rocks of NW Ireland extend from the western margin of the Dublin Basin (see Chapter 21), NW into Co. Roscommon as far as the Curlew Mountains, and further NW into Co. Leitrim and Co. Sligo, south Co. Donegal, and north Co. Mayo, north of the Ox Mountains (Fig. 54). All the rocks in the region belong to the Mississippian Subsystem. Late Tournaisian, mostly continental or marginal marine facies, and Visean (Chadian-Asbian) shelf limestone of the Tyrone Group occur in counties Roscommon, Mayo, Leitrim, Sligo and Donegal within four structurally-controlled basins: the Carrick-on-Shannon Syncline, south of the Curlew Mountains; the Ballymote Syncline, between the Curlew Mountains to the south and the Ox Mountains to the north (Dixon 1972), extending NE into the Lough Allen Basin and the Cuilcagh Mountains farther to the east in Co. Leitrim; the Sligo Syncline north of the Ox Mountains (Oswald 1955); the Largymore Syncline, west of Killybegs and St John’s Point in south Co. Donegal. The Tyrone Group is followed by a mainly mudstone-rich sequence with an alternation of marine limestone, shale and sandstone (both marine and fluvio-deltaic) of late Visean to Namurian age (Leitrim Group). The lithostratigraphy used here is based on a compilation and synthesis of existing published nomenclature. Unlike many other areas in southern Ireland, groups have been formally defined, combining related formations in similar depositional settings (e.g. shelf, ramp and basin).

Abstract During the Carboniferous, Northern Ireland straddled a zone of dextral strike-slip faulting, comparable to the Midland Valley of Scotland (see Chapter 14). The earliest Mississippian marine transgression reached Northern Ireland in the late Tournaisian (CM Miospore Biozone) and from then until the mid-Arnsbergian Substage (E 2b 1 Subzone) the sediment fill was deposited in close proximity to the northern margin of the basin. Metamorphic rocks of the Central Highlands (Grampian) Terrane to the north were repeatedly exposed during episodes of marine regression. In the SE of the region it appears that the Southern Uplands-Down-Longford Terrane was finally submerged in the late Asbian or early Brigantian. The cumulative thickness of 7000 m is represented mainly by Tournaisian, Visean and lower Namurian rocks in Co. Fermanagh, the Fintona Block, peripheral sections at Coalisland and isolated basins such as Newtownstewart, all in Co. Tyrone (Fig. 51). The most continuous outcrop and succession extend from Co. Fermanagh and south Co. Tyrone into north Co. Armagh. The Carboniferous outcrop in the eastern part of Northern Ireland is reduced to outliers at Ballycastle in Co. Antrim, and in Co. Down at Cultra, Castle Espie and Carlingford Lough. During the Pennsylvanian, much of Northern Ireland was land, and strata of this age are limited in extent to the Fintona Block and east Co. Tyrone (Fig. 51).