Stratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental significance of microbial carbonates in the Asbian Sandy Craig Formation of Fife

Abstract

This study concentrates on Viséan Strathclyde Group microbial carbonates from the eastern Midland Valley of Scotland. In the largely non-marine Sandy Craig and West Lothian Oil-Shale formations persistent lithostratigraphical marker horizons, such as distinct microbial carbonates, are used to aid correlation of sequences where conventional biostratigraphy is limited to the identification of infrequent marine bands. In the newly described Rosyth core, microbial carbonates above the Burdiehouse Limestone are correlated with microbial horizons at Kingswood (Fife) and Inchkeith (Firth of Forth), a correlation supported by the presence of the bivalve Curvirimula scotica. The revised position of the Inchkeith microbial horizon to 20–30 m above the Burdiehouse Limestone contradicts earlier correlations of the Inchkeith sequences with the Burdiehouse Limestone. The microbial carbonates represent littoral and sublittoral zone stromatolites growing i

Mississippian (Early Carboniferous) stromatolite mounds in a fore-reef slope setting, Laibin, Guangxi, South China

“…This interpretation is based on the fact that sediments between bulbous stromatolites are mostly micrite and do not contain shallow water benthic fossils. The analogs such as the bulbous stromatolites in the Viséan Strathclyde Group, eastern Midland Valley of Scotland (Guirdham et al 2003) are believed to be precipitated in situ by microbial mediation, rather than by trapping and binding of allochthonous Fig. 12 Thin-section photomicrographs in planepolarized light, Mengcun section.…”

“…d Skeletal grains, oncoid-like form, algal and foraminifer grains and microbialites are encrusted by microbial micrite that is cemented by sparry calcite Fig. 13 Sketch of the depositional facies for the Mississippian stromatolite mounds at Mengcun and Helv, Laibin City, Guangxi Province, South China material, although the latter occurs in non-marine shallow water lacustrine environments under hypersaline conditions (Guirdham et al 2003). The columnar forms in the Mengcun and Helv mounds are interpreted to relate to bioherms.…”

Ostracods from freshwater and brackish environments of the Carboniferous of the Midland Valley of Scotland: the early colonization of terrestrial water bodies

“…Anthraconaia and Carbonicola are commonly associated with Naiadites in Pennsylvanian freshwater Coal Measures (for example, Jenkins, 1960;Hartley, 1993;Brand, 1996;Eagar & Belt, 2003). Anthraconaia, Carbonicola, Curvirimula and Naiadites occur in brackish (Ballèvre & Lardeux, 2005) or lacustrine Mississippian sediments (Guirdham et al 2003) and freshwater Pennsylvanian sediments (Brand, 1994;Anderson et al 1999;Falcon-Lang, 2005;Falcon-Lang et al 2006). Extant Spinicaudata typically live in freshwater, but can tolerate salinities up to 6 ‰ NaCl.…”

“…MacNeil & Jones, 2006). Carboniferous freshwater algal limestones have been reported from the MVS (Guirdham et al 2003), France (Freyet, Broutin & Durand, 2000) and Illinois (Scott, 1944). In the Pennsylvanian of Illinois stromatolitic limestones contain abundant indeterminate ostracods and 'Spirorbis', interpreted to have lived in a shallow water lake (Scott, 1944).…”

A geomagnetic polarity timescale for the Carboniferous

“…The chronology of the lava succession has improved since these early palaeomagnetic studies. From Buntisland in the west to Kircaldy in the east, the lavas are easily-related to other successions in the Scottish Midland Valley, by a lithostratigraphy (Brown et al 1999;Guirdham et al 2003), linked to miospore zonations (Brindley & Spinner 1989;Owens et al 2005), and some foraminifera data from the upper part (Lower Limestone Fm) of the Kinghorn-Kirkcaldy succession (Karbub 1993;Cozar et al 2008). Palynological correlation suggests the base of the Lower Limestone Fm (base of Hurlet Limestone) is equivalent to the base of the 1st Abden Limestone at Kinghorn (Brindley & Spinner 1989).…”