The goniatite-bearing black marine shales at the base of the Namurian in County Clare and County Limerick, described by Hodson in north Clare and at Foynes Island (1954
a
, 1954
b
) are redefined as a litho-stratigraphic unit, the Clare Shales, to exclude an upper sandy division. The outcrop of the Clare Shales has been mapped in detail for a distance of about 50 miles from the Atlantic coast of north-west County Clare southwards to the Limerick-Cork border. Wherever possible the faunal succession and the thickness of the goniatite zones have been determined. It is shown t h a t the junction of the Carboniferous Limestone and the overlying Namurian is, over the greater part of the outcrop, and probably the whole of it, non-sequential. The basal beds of the Clare Shales vary from Lower
Eumorphoceras
age (E
l
) immediately north of the Shannon estuary to
Homoceras
age (H) at the northern and probably at the southern limits of the area investigated. It is demonstrated that a mid-Carboniferous trough of sedimentation exists in County Clare and County Limerick, with its axis roughly along the line of the present-day Shannon estuary. The regularity of the overlap of the lower zones of the Namurian is disturbed north of the Shannon by thinning due to a ridge of Carboniferous Limestone at Carrowkilla, north of Ballynaeally, and by the presence of beds of basal Namurian age containing
Cravenoceras leion
in the area around Shallee Castle, west of Ennis. Apart from these iregularities, there is a steady overlap of the lower zones by the upper as one proceeds a w a y from the Shannon. By the correlation of accurately measured sections it is possible to reconstruct the form of trough along the line of section examined.
Spongolite beds are common in the basal Namurian shales of Co. Clare and Co. Limerick, and are especially well developed north of Ardagh, Co. Limerick. Spongolites from this locality are described and are considered to represent a local deposit of siliceous monactinellid spicules. They are compared with the “phtanites” of the Assise de Chokier of Belgium, which are of the same age and similarly preserved. Stylolite seams developed within the rocks are briefly described.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.