The deep structure of Derbyshire

A sedimentological study was conducted at two localities exposing the Mississippian Eyam Limestone Formation of the Derbyshire carbonate platform, UK. Ricklow Quarry comprises seven facies with diverse skeletal assemblages, representing deposition on the inner to middle ramp within open marine waters. Once-a-Week Quarry comprises four facies, dominated by crinoidal debris representing deposition on the inner ramp. Both localities expose Gigantoproductus shell beds. Palaeoecological analysis of a single shell bed from each locality enabled investigation of the rapid colonization and success of this taxon on the platform. At Ricklow Quarry, on the eastern side of a localized mud mound, both life (>72% of thin and thick-shelled brachiopods in life position) and neighbourhood assemblages are present. A low-moderate diversity community (<1.37 and <0.8 Shannon diversity index) rapidly established over relict Brigantian mud mounds. Shell beds are preluded by intervals of decreased energy that allowed larvae to settle. Once established, the dominance of thick-shelled individuals enabled baffling, potentially providing localized shelter for larvae and nearby individuals. At Once-a-Week Quarry, where no mud mound is present, only thick-shelled Gigantoproductus species and a low diversity community (<1.07 Shannon diversity index) exclusively comprising neighbourhood assemblages (37% in life position) is present. The presence of inactive mud mounds at Ricklow Quarry appears to have been the key to the success of Gigantoproductus species enabling the onset of stable communities in the shelter provided by the relict mound. Once the first palaeocommunities were established, larvae dispersed and colonized higher energy settings, such as at Once-a-Week Quarry.

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“…The platform formed around a basement high that comprised three half-grabens (Smith et al 1985). It is divided into two provinces ( Fig.…”

Section: Stratigraphy and Lithofaciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sedimentary context and palaeoecology of Gigantoproductus shell beds in the Mississippian Eyam Limestone Formation, Derbyshire carbonate platform, central England

Nolan

Angiolini

Jadoul

et al. 2017

PYGS

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“…The Derbyshire Platform has previously been described as rimmed (e.g. Smith et al, 1985;Gutteridge, 1991) but the dispersed distribution of mounds and shoals suggests that build-ups were less laterally continuous than previously assumed. The depths at which mounds grew is also unclear; Harwood (2005) suggested water depths of 10 to 20 metres.…”

Section: Controls On Platform Margin Morphologymentioning

confidence: 88%

“…These cements precipitate as a result of wave and storm-facilitated seawater flux (Kirkby, 1987;Kenter 1990;Della Porta et al, 2003;Bahamonde et al, 2004;van der Kooij et al, 2010). Miller and Grayson (1982), Smith et al, (1985) and Gutteridge (1987) all interpreted the Derbyshire Platform to be a southward-dipping fault block, but Schofield (1982) and Gawthorpe and Gutteridge (1990) infer the northern margin to be leeward. On the north and west of the Derbyshire Platform, platform margin build-ups might have developed in response to footwall rotation, basinal currents or other environmental controls, and this combined with preferential cementation would have contributed to steepening of the platform margin.…”

Section: Palaeo-wind Directionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unravelling evidence for global climate change in Mississippian carbonate strata from the Derbyshire and North Wales Platforms, UK

Manifold

Strother

Gold

et al. 2021

JGS

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The Mississippian Derbyshire and North Wales carbonate platforms were formed in similar tectonic settings within the Pennine and East Irish Sea Basin, respectively. The Derbyshire Platform was surrounded by sub-basins to the north, west, and south whilst the North Wales Platform, 130 km west, had a simpler land-attached geometry. Comparison of these age-equivalent platforms allows the controls on sedimentation, at an important juncture in Earth history, to be evaluated. Both platforms are dominated by moderate-to-high-energy, laterally discontinuous facies, with weak evidence for facies cyclicity, suggesting multiple controls on deposition. Influx of siliciclastic mud on the North Wales Platform led to perturbations in carbonate accumulation; along with abundant palaeosols and coal beds this implies a more humid climate, or shallower water depths compared to the Derbyshire Platform. On both platforms, exposure surfaces can rarely be correlated over >500 metres except for a regionally correlative palaeokarstic surface at the Asbian-Brigantian boundary. This exposure event appears to coincide with a significant regional facies change. Given the lack of evidence for ordering and cyclicity within the strata, the Asbian-Brigantian boundary may mark a significant event that could reflect onset of a transitional climate, prior to the second glaciation event in the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age.

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“…1). The Derbyshire High is interpreted as comprising two basement tilted blocks, the Eyam Block to the north and the Woo Dale Block to the south (Smith et al 1985), with a fault terrace in-between bounded by the Bakewell Fault and the Cronkston-Bonsall Fault (Fig. 2a; Gutteridge 1989a).…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting the upper Visean mud mounds from Derbyshire (UK): the role of brachiopods in their growth

Carniti

Porta

Banks

et al. 2023

Facies

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Several brachiopod-rich mud mounds occur in the upper Visean (Brigantian) of the Derbyshire Carbonate Platform succession in UK. The re-evaluation of the lithofacies architecture of a Derbyshire mud mound complex, developed in an intraplatform middle-ramp environment, led to the recognition of three lithofacies associations: (a) a 10 m thick basal unit of automicrite boundstone with siliceous sponge spicules and brachiopod–bryozoan packstone to wackestone beds; (b) a 10 m thick, 250 m wide, lens-shaped, convex-up massive core of clotted peloidal micrite and fenestellid bryozoan boundstone with sponge spicules; (c) inclined brachiopod–bryozoan–crinoid packstone flank beds. In the mud mound complex core, most of the carbonate mud with clotted peloidal and structureless micrite fabric is the result of biologically induced and influenced in-situ precipitation processes (automicrite). Brachiopods are not, as previously thought, limited to storm-scoured “pockets” in the mud mound complex core but are abundant and diverse in all lithofacies and lived on the irregular mud mound complex surface concentrating in depressions sustained by automicrite boundstone and the growth of bryozoans and sponges. The upper Visean Derbyshire mud mounds are, thus, representatives of a newly defined fenestellid bryozoan–brachiopod–siliceous sponge mud mound category, occurring in various middle–upper Visean Western European sites, a sub-type of the fenestellid bryozoan–crinoid–brachiopod Type 3 buildups of Bridges et al. (1995). These mud mounds, and other types of brachiopod-rich buildups, developed in carbonate platform settings between fair-weather and storm wave base, in dysphotic environments with dispersed food resources during the Visean. Brachiopod mud mound colonisation was favoured by moderate water depth, availability of food resources, and diverse substrates.

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The deep structure of Derbyshire

Cited by 28 publications

References 18 publications

Sedimentary context and palaeoecology of Gigantoproductus shell beds in the Mississippian Eyam Limestone Formation, Derbyshire carbonate platform, central England

Sedimentary context and palaeoecology of Gigantoproductus shell beds in the Mississippian Eyam Limestone Formation, Derbyshire carbonate platform, central England

Unravelling evidence for global climate change in Mississippian carbonate strata from the Derbyshire and North Wales Platforms, UK

Revisiting the upper Visean mud mounds from Derbyshire (UK): the role of brachiopods in their growth

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