Abstract Carboniferous rocks within the Cumbria and northern Pennines region are bound by the Maryport-Stublick-Ninety Fathom Fault System, which forms the northern boundary of the Lake District and Alston blocks (Fig. 37). In the Pennines, the succession occupies the Alston and Askrigg blocks and the intervening Stainmore Trough, a broadly east-west trending graben. Carboniferous strata also flank the Lake District Block, occurring at outcrop in north Cumbria, Furness and Cartmel (south Cumbria) and the Vale of Eden, and in the subsurface in west Cumbria. The Askrigg Block succession is separated from that of the Craven Basin (Chapter 11), to the south, by the Craven Fault System. All of the stages of the Carboniferous, with the exception of the Stephanian, are present at outcrop. The oldest Tournaisian strata occur at outcrop along the flanks of the Lake District Block and within the Stainmore Trough. They are represented by continental and peritidal deposits (Ravenstonedale Group), and locally associated with volcanic rocks (Cockermouth Volcanic Formation of north Cumbria). The Ravenstonedale Group is diachronous, occurring later on the structural highs, with deposition during Chadian times on the Askrigg Block and Holkerian times on the Alston Block. The Ravenstonedale Group is overlain by upper Tournaisian to upper Visean platform carbonate rocks (Great Scar Limestone Group), which initially developed on the flanks of the Lake District Block, but by late Asbian times extended across the entire region (Mitchell 1978).

Abstract Rugose corals are one of the major fossil groups in shallow-water environments. They played an important role in dividing and correlating Carboniferous strata during the last century, when regional biostratigraphic schemes were established, and may be useful for long-distance correlation. Carboniferous rugose corals document two evolutionary events. One is the Tournaisian recovery event, with abundant occurrences of typical Carboniferous rugose corals such as columellate taxa and a significant diversification of large, dissepimented corals. The other is the changeover of rugose coral composition at the mid-Carboniferous boundary, which is represented by the disappearance of many large dissepimented taxa with complex axial structures and the appearance of typical Pennsylvanian taxa characterized by compound rugose taxa. The biostratigraphic scales for rugose corals show a finer temporal resolution in the Mississippian than in the Pennsylvanian, which was probably caused by the Late Paleozoic Ice Age that resulted in glacial–eustatic changes and a lack of continuous Pennsylvanian carbonate strata. The Pennsylvanian rugose corals are totally missing in the Cimmerian Continent. High-resolution biostratigraphy of rugose corals has so far only been achieved in few regions for the Mississippian timescale. In most regions, more detailed taxonomic work and precise correlations between different fossil groups are needed.

Abstract The term Carboniferous was created as a stratigraphical term by Conybeare & Phillips (1822) for strata present in England and Wales and was first referred to as a system by Phillips (1835). The original definition of the Carboniferous included the Old Red Sandstone. With the establishment of the Devonian system in 1839 the Old Red Sandstone was removed from the Carboniferous and placed in the Devonian. Broad similarities within the successions of Britain and Ireland with the rest of Western Europe have allowed development of a regionally applicable chronostratigraphy. Munier-Chalmas & de Lapparent (1893) originally divided the Carboniferous of Western Europe into the Dinantian, Westphalian and Stephanian. Later, the lower part of the Westphalian was redefined as the Namurian and both were identified as stages (Jongmans 1928). The Namurian, Westphalian and Stephanian stages do not represent global faunal or fioral events, but were chosen to represent prominent facies variations and palaeogeographic separations in Western Europe. The Dinantian subsequently became a subsystem, with two component series, the Tournaisian and Visean (George & Wagner 1972), whereas the Namurian, Westphalian and Stephanian became series of a Silesian Subsystem. However, George et al. (1976) were not prepared to use the terms Tournaisian and Visean in their review of British chronostratigraphy.

Abstract Carboniferous rocks within this region occur in a series of inliers, many occurring in the cores of periclines and anticlines. The Tournaisian and Visean strata comprise ramp carbonate successions (Avon and Pembroke Limestone groups), which show similarities with equivalent strata to the west in South Wales (Chapter 5). The main outcrops, broadly from south to north, are the Cannington Park inlier and Mendips, Weston-super-Mare, Broadfield Down, Bristol and Avon, Cromhall and Chepstow to Monmouth (Fig. 19). Namurian strata are present only in the south of the region, in the Bristol and Somerset coalfields. Little information is available on the nature of these strata, though they show some similarities to the fluvial and deltaic successions of the Marros Group of South Wales (Chapter 5). Westphalian strata are present in all the coalfields, broadly from south to north, the Somerset, Bristol, Severn, Forest of Dean and Newent coalfields (Fig. 19). Fluvio-lacustrine deposits (South Wales Coal Measures Group) are present only in the Somerset, Bristol and the south-eastern part of the Nailsea coalfields. These coalfields are laterally contiguous beneath Mesozoic strata. Deposition was also probably laterally contiguous with the concealed Berkshire Coalfield (Chapter 7). It has not been possible to demonstrate lateral continuity with the South Wales Coalfield (Chapter 5). Strata of this facies are absent from the Newent, Forest of Dean and Severn coalfields and the Cannington Park inlier along the axis of the syn-Westphalian Usk Anticline.

Abstract Carboniferous rocks within this region occupy a broadly east-west trending graben, referred to as the Northumberland Trough within Northumberland (Bewcastle to the North Sea coast) and the Solway Basin in the vicinity of the Solway Firth, where much of the succession is obscured by Permo-Triassic strata (Fig. 40). The graben is bounded to the south by the Maryport-Stublick-Ninety Fathom Fault System, which forms the northern boundary of the Lake District and Alston blocks (see Chapter 12). The Carboniferous rocks are broadly separated from the Midland Valley of Scotland (Chapter 14), to the north, by the Lower Palaeozoic rocks of the Southern Uplands, which formed an emergent upland area throughout much of the Carboniferous, with local deposition within small basins. At the eastern onshore extent of the Southern Uplands a relatively condensed Carboniferous succession was deposited upon the Cheviot Block. All of the regional stages of the Carboniferous are present at outcrop, though strata of Stephanian age have not been proved biostratigraphically. The oldest Tournaisian strata occur at outcrop along the northern margins of the Northumberland Trough-Solway Basin, represented by continental and peritidal deposits, typically separated by volcanic rocks (Inverclyde Group). These strata extend offshore in the North Sea (Chapter 15), linking directly with the outcrop of Inverclyde Group present within the Midland Valley of Scotland. In the Northumberland Trough-Solway Basin, the Inverclyde Group passes southwards into, and is overlain by, a lower to middle Visean heterolithic clastic and non-marine carbonate and fluvio-deltaic succession (Border Group).

Abstract Carboniferous rocks in this region occur in a broadly east-west trending syncline, the core of which includes the South Wales and Pembrokeshire coalfields (Fig. 16). Tournaisian and Visean strata (Avon and Pembroke Limestone groups) represent deposition on a southward prograding carbonate ramp evolving into a carbonate shelf (Wright 1987), in a succession which shows similarities to that of the Bristol and Mendips areas (Chapter 6). The main outcrops, in south Pembrokeshire, Gower and the Vale of Glamorgan, occur along the southern periphery of the coalfields and are commonly affected by Variscan thrusting and folding. Thinner successions occur along what are termed the East Crop and North Crop of the South Wales Coalfield, where much of the Visean succession is absent due to sub-Namurian and intra-Visean unconformities. Namurian fluvio-deltaic deposits (Marros Group) flank the South Wales and Pembrokeshire coalflelds. Much of the lower and middle Namurian succession is absent across the region, except in the west of the South Wales Coalfleld where only small parts are absent beneath an intra-Namurian unconformity. Westphalian fluvio-lacustrine deposits (South Wales Coal Measures Group) form the South Wales and Pembrokeshire coalfields, located to the east and west of Carmarthen Bay, respectively. Westphalian to Stephanian Pennant alluvial facies (Warwickshire Group) occur in the core of the South Wales Coalfield syncline.

Abstract Sierra de la Estrella outcrops belong to the Sierra del Castillo Unit, which is defined in the Guadiato Area, SW Spain, where sedimentation occurred during the Late Viséan. The Guadiato Area is located on the boundary between the Ossa-Morena and Central Iberian structural zones, in the southwestern Iberian Peninsula, where Lower Carboniferous outcrops are common. The stratigraphic succession from Sierra de la Estrella is dated precisely by means of foraminifers (Zone 15). The studied rocks are interpreted as having developed on a storm-dominated ramp. Microbial buildups occur interbedded between tempestites and marls. Two main types of mud mounds have been distinguished: large tabular and smaller dome-shaped mud mounds, which were developed in a middle-ramp setting.

Abstract Coral-bearing bioconstructions are described for the first time from upper Lower Carboniferous (Upper Mississippian) shallow-water limestone olistoliths of the southern Montagne Noire (Mont Peyroux Nappe), southern France. Microbial-induced wackestones and microbial boundstones dominate major parts of the Brigantian Roque Redonde Formation and Serpukhovian Roc de Murviel Formation, which follows on top of a paleokarst. Further subtidal facies are intercalated. The short-lived bioconstructions consist of thin monospecific and polyspecific coral biostromes, coral bioherms (patch reefs) growing in high-energy turbulent environments, and a single example of a large shallow-water microbial buildup that formed below fair-weather wave base in dimmed light. The contribution of rugose corals to the bioconstructions varies from active framebuilding in the biostromes and bioherms to passive dwelling of sparse fauna in the microbial buildup. Microbial structures are of special importance within polyspecific biostromes and patch reefs. In a delicate balanced system they are responsible for growth or suffocation of the coral-dominated bioconstructions. That co-occurrence of coral boundstones and microbial boundstones appears to be a widespread characteristic of small reefs in Late Viséan and Early Serpukhovian time. Factors limiting the growth of the bioconstructions in southern France include rapid sea-level variations, tectonic instability of the shelf, and intrinsic paleobiological features of the rugose corals, like their fragility and inability to encrust mobile substrates. Comparable upper Lower Carboniferous coral-bearing bioconstructions of the Paleotethys realm and the epeiric seas of northwestern Europe are discussed.