词条 | Old Red Sandstone |
释义 |
| name = Old Red Sandstone | image = OldRedSandstone2.jpg | caption = Cross-section showing quartz and chert pebbles in a sample from central England (scale bar is {{convert|10|mm|in|abbr=on}}) | type = Supergroup | prilithology = Sandstone | otherlithology = Conglomerate, shale, mudstone, siltstone, limestone | namedfor = | namedby = | region = North Atlantic | country = {{CAN}} {{GRL}} {{IRL}} {{NOR}} {{UK}} | coordinates = | unitof = | subunits = See text | thickness = More than {{convert|4|km|ft|abbr=on}} (Shetlands) | extent = {{convert|700|km|mi|abbr=on}}[1] | area = | age = Late Silurian-earliest Carboniferous | period = Paleozoic }} The Old Red Sandstone is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the northeastern seaboard of North America. It also extends northwards into Greenland and Svalbard.[1] In Britain it is a lithostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) to which stratigraphers accord supergroup status[2] and which is of considerable importance to early paleontology. For convenience the short version of the term, ORS is often used in literature on the subject. The term was coined to distinguish the sequence from the younger New Red Sandstone which also occurs widely throughout Britain. SedimentologyThe Old Red Sandstone describes a suite of sedimentary rocks deposited in a variety of environments during the Devonian but extending back into the late Silurian and on into the earliest part of the Carboniferous. The body of rock, or facies, is dominated by alluvial sediments and conglomerates at its base, and progresses to a combination of dunes, lakes and river sediments. The familiar red colour of these rocks arises from the presence of iron oxide but not all the Old Red Sandstone is red or sandstone — the sequence also includes conglomerates, mudstones, siltstones and thin limestones and colours can range from grey and green through to red and purple. These deposits are closely associated with the erosion of the Caledonian Mountain chain which was thrown up by the collision of the former continents of Avalonia, Baltica and Laurentia to form the Old Red Sandstone Continent- an event known as the Caledonian Orogeny. Many fossils are found within the rocks, including early fishes, arthropods and plants. The rocks may appear paleontologically barren to amateur geologists but careful study, particularly with an accomplished fossil hunter, can uncover pockets of fossils. Rocks of this age were also laid down in southwest England (hence the name 'Devonian'; from Devon) though these are of true marine origin and are not included within the Old Red Sandstone.[3] StratigraphySince the Old Red Sandstone consists predominantly of rocks of terrestrial origin, it does not generally contain marine fossils which would otherwise prove useful in correlating one occurrence of the rock with another, both between and within individual sedimentary basins. Accordingly, local stage names were devised and these remain in use to some extent today though there is an increasing use of international stage names. Thus in the Anglo-Welsh Basin, there are frequent references to the Downtonian, Dittonian, Breconian and Farlovian stages in the literature. The existence of a number of distinct sedimentary basins throughout Britain has been established.[3] Orcadian BasinThe Orcadian Basin extends over a wide area of North East Scotland and the neighbouring seas. It encompasses the Moray Firth and adjoining land areas, Caithness, Orkney and parts of Shetland. South of the Moray Firth, two distinct sub-basins are recognised at Turriff and at Rhynie. The sequence is more than {{convert|4|km|ft}} thick in parts of Shetland. The main basin is considered to be an intramontane basin resulting from crustal rifting associated with post-Caledonian extension, possibly accompanied by strike-slip faulting along the Great Glen Fault system.[4] ArgyllThere are a scatter of exposures of the Old Red Sandstone around the Oban area on the West Highland coast where a conglomerate of andesite boulders rests unconformably on Dalradian schists of the Easdale Subgroup. They are interpreted as alluvial fans which filled a depositional basin from the east and northeast.[5] The deposits are especially obvious on Kerrera where they form the bedrock across half of the island. [6] The Kerrera Sandstone Formation is up to 128m thick in its type area and consists of green and red sandstones and conglomerates accompanied by siltstones, mudstones and limestones.[7] Small outliers occur near Taynuilt and either side of Loch Avich.[8] Midland Valley of ScotlandThe Midland Valley graben defined by the Highland Boundary Fault in the north and the Southern Uplands Fault in the south harbours not only a considerable amount of Old Red Sandstone sedimentary rocks but also igneous rocks of this age associated with extensive volcanism. There is a continuous outcrop along the Highland Boundary Fault from Stonehaven on the North Sea coast to Helensburgh and beyond to Arran. A more disconnected series of outcrops occur along the line of the Southern Uplands Fault from Edinburgh to Girvan. Old Red Sandstone often occurs in conjunction with conglomerate formations, one such noteworthy cliffside exposure being the Fowlsheugh Nature Reserve, Kincardineshire. Scottish bordersA series of outcrops occur from East Lothian southwards through Berwickshire. Hutton's famous unconformity at Siccar Point occurs within this basin - see History of study below. Anglo-Welsh BasinThis relatively large basin extends across much of South Wales from southern Pembrokeshire in the west through Carmarthenshire into Powys and Monmouthshire and through the southern Welsh Marches, notably into Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. Outliers in Somerset and north Devon complete the extent of this basin. With the exception of south Pembrokeshire, all parts of the basin are represented by a range of lithologies assigned to the Lower Devonian and to the Upper Devonian, the contact between the two being unconformable and representing the complete omission of any Middle Devonian sequence. The lowermost formations are of upper Silurian age, these being the Downton Castle Sandstone Formation and the overlying Raglan Mudstone Formation except in Pembrokeshire where a more complex series of formations is recognised. In the east of the basin, the top of the Raglan Mudstone is marked by a well-developed calcrete, the Bishop's Frome Limestone.[9] The lowermost Devonian formation is the St Maughans Formation, itself overlain by the Brownstones Formation though with an intervening Senni Formation over much of the area. The Upper Devonian sequence is rather thinner and comprises a series of formations which are more laterally restricted. In the Brecon Beacons, the Plateau Beds Formation is unconformably overlain by the Grey Grits Formation though further east these divisions are replaced by the Quartz Conglomerate Group which is itself subdivided into a variety of different formations. PembrokeshireThe sequence in Pembrokeshire differs from that of the main part of the basin and falls into two parts.[10] In North Pembrokeshire to the north of the Ritec Fault, both the middle and upper ORS are missing with only the lower ORS present; this is divided into an earlier Milford Haven Group comprising in ascending order, the Red Cliff, Sandy Haven and Gelliswick Bay formations and a later Cosheston Group with, again in ascending order, its constituent Llanstadwell, Burton Cliff, Mill Bay, Lawrenny Cliff and New Shipping formations. These respectively equate with the Temeside, Raglan Mudstone and St Maughans formations of the central and eastern part of the basin.
In south Pembrokeshire to the south of the Ritec Fault, the lower ORS is represented by, in ascending order, the Freshwater East, Moors Cliff and Freshwater West formations. These are unconformably overlain by the Ridgeway Conglomerate Formation. The middle ORS is missing whilst the Upper ORS is represented by the Gupton and West Angle formations.
The Freshwater East Formation, and corresponding Red Cliff Formation of north Pembrokeshire, are both late Silurian in age.[11] AngleseyA small and separate basin exists here where both alluvial and lacustrine deposits are recorded. Both the middle and upper ORS are missing but the lower ORS is represented, in ascending order, by the Bodafon, Traeth Bach, Porth y Mor and Traeth Lligwy formations. Calcretes are also recorded representing carbonate-rich soils developed between periods of sediment deposition. The present day outcrop occupies a narrow zone from Dulas Bay on Anglesey's northeast coast, southwards to the town of Llangefni.[3][12] History of studyIn 1787 James Hutton noted what is now known as Hutton's Unconformity at Inchbonny, Jedburgh, and in early 1788 he set off with John Playfair to the Berwickshire coast and found more examples of this sequence in the valleys of the Tower and Pease Burns near Cockburnspath.[13] They then took a boat trip from Dunglass Burn east along the coast with the geologist Sir James Hall of Dunglass and at Siccar Point found what Hutton called "a beautiful picture of this junction washed bare by the sea",[14] where 345-million-year-old Old Red Sandstone overlies 425-million-year-old Silurian greywacke.[15][16] In the early 19th century, the paleontology of the formation was studied intensively by Hugh Miller, Henry Thomas De la Beche, Roderick Murchison, and Adam Sedgwick—Sedgwick's interpretation was the one that placed it in the Devonian: he coined the name of that period. The term 'Old Red Sandstone' was originally used in 1821 by Scottish naturalist and mineralogist Robert Jameson to refer to the red rocks which underlay the 'Mountain Limestone' i.e. the Carboniferous Limestone. They were thought at that time to be the British version of Germany's Rotliegendes, which is in fact of Permian age.[3] Many of the science of stratigraphy's early debates were about the Old Red Sandstone. In older geological works predating theories of plate tectonics, the United States' Catskill Delta formation is sometimes referred to as part of the Old Red Sandstone. In the modern day it is recognized that the two are not stratigraphically continuous but are very similar due to being formed at approximately the same time by the same processes. Use as a building stoneThe Old Red Sandstone has been widely used as a building stone across those regions where it outcrops. Notable examples of its use can be found in the area surrounding Stirling,[17] Stonehaven,[18] Perth[19] and Tayside. The inhabitants of Caithness[20] at the northeastern tip of Scotland also used the stone to a considerable extent. Old Red Sandstone has also frequently been used in buildings in Herefordshire, Monmouthshire and the former Brecknockshire (now south Powys) of south Wales. Notable buildings
See also{{portal|Geology|Greenland|Ireland|Norway|United Kingdom}}
References1. ^Friend, P.F. and Williams, B.P.J. (eds) 2000 New Perspectives on the Old Red Sandstone. Geological Society, London, Special publications 180 p1,35 2. ^http://www.bgs.ac.uk/Lexicon/lexicon.cfm?pub=ORS entry in BGS on-line rock lexicon 3. ^1 2 3 4 {{cite book | last = Barclay | first = W.J. | title = The Old Red Sandstone of Great Britain | publisher = Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) | location = City | year = 2005 | isbn = 978-1-86107-543-7 |url=http://www.jncc.gov.uk/page-2936}} 4. ^{{cite journal|last=Seranne|first=M.|title=Devonian extensional tectonics versus Carboniferous inversion in the northern Orcadian basin|journal=Journal of the Geological Society|volume=149|issue=1|pages=27–37|url=http://jgs.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/149/1/27|accessdate=2010-02-25|doi=10.1144/gsjgs.149.1.0027|year=1992}} 5. ^British Geological Survey 1:50,000 scale geological map sheet 45W (Scotland) Connel 1991 6. ^British Geological Survey 1:50,000 scale geological map sheet 44E (Scotland) Lismore 1992 7. ^{{cite web |title=Kerrera Sandstone Formation |url=https://www.bgs.ac.uk/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?pub=KESA |website=BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units |publisher=British Geological Survey |accessdate=31 October 2018}} 8. ^ British Geological Survey 1:50,000 scale geological map sheet 37W (Scotland) Furnace 2008 9. ^http://www.bgs.ac.uk/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?pub=BFLS 10. ^Barclay, W.J. (2005) in The Old Red Sandstone of Great Britain (w.J. Barclay, M.A.E. Browne, A.A. McMillan, E.A. Pickett, P. Stone and P.R.Wilby) Geological Conservation Review series, No 31 JNCC, Peterborough pp 212-213 11. ^Howells, M.F. 2007 British Regional Geology: Wales (Keyworth, Nottingham. British Geological Survey) p100-101 12. ^British Geological Survey 1:50K special map sheet Anglesey 13. ^{{cite web |url=http://nagt.org/files/nagt/jge/abstracts/Montgomery_v51n5.pdf |title=Siccar Point and Teaching the History of Geology |accessdate=2008-03-26 |author=Keith Montgomery |year=2003 |website= |publisher=University of Wisconsin }} 14. ^{{Cite web |url=http://www.james-hutton.org/One/Geology/05.htm |title=Hutton's Journeys to Prove his Theory |access-date=2018-12-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726201217/http://www.james-hutton.org/One/Geology/05.htm |archive-date=2011-07-26 |dead-url=yes |df= }} 15. ^1 {{cite web |url=http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/undergraduate/field/siccarpoint/ |title=Siccar Point |author=Cliff Ford |date=2 September 2003 |work=Field Excursion Preview |publisher=University of Edinburgh School of GeoSciences |accessdate=2008-10-20}} 16. ^{{cite web |url=http://geowords.com/histbookpdf/a22.pdf |title=Hutton's unconformities |author=Rance, Hugh |year=1999 |work=Historical Geology: The Present is the Key to the Past |publisher=QCC Press |accessdate=2008-10-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081203173042/http://www.geowords.com/histbookpdf/a22.pdf |archive-date=2008-12-03 |dead-url=yes |df= }} 17. ^https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/271357 18. ^https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/257397 19. ^https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/12129 20. ^https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1064 21. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/architecture_cathedral_01.shtml|title=The Cathedrals of Britain|last=BBC|accessdate=4 March 2010}} 22. ^1 2 http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/media/4/9/5/2/Newsletter_5.pdf{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} External links{{commons category|Old Red Sandstone}}
53 : Geological groups|Geologic formations of Canada|Geologic formations of Greenland|Geologic formations of Ireland|Geologic formations of Norway|Geologic formations of the United Kingdom|Geologic formations of the United States|Carboniferous paleontological sites|Carboniferous System of Europe|Devonian System of Europe|Silurian System of North America|Devonian System of North America|Carboniferous System of North America|Silurian paleontological sites|Devonian Canada|Devonian England|Devonian Ireland|Devonian Greenland|Devonian Norway|Devonian Scotland|Devonian United Kingdom|Devonian United States|Silurian Canada|Silurian England|Silurian Ireland|Silurian Greenland|Silurian Norway|Silurian Scotland|Silurian United Kingdom|Silurian United States|Carboniferous England|Carboniferous Norway|Carboniferous Scotland|Carboniferous United Kingdom|Sandstone formations|Conglomerate formations|Limestone formations|Mudstone formations|Shale formations|Siltstone formations|Geologic formations with imbedded sand dunes|Aeolian deposits|Fluvial deposits|Lacustrine deposits|Fossiliferous stratigraphic units of Europe|Fossiliferous stratigraphic units of North America|Paleontology in Canada|Paleontology in England|Paleontology in Ireland|Paleontology in Greenland|Paleontology in Norway|Paleontology in the United Kingdom|Paleontology in the United States |
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