The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Denend Gravel Formation [Obsolete: use LEY]

Computer Code: DNDGR Preferred Map Code: notEntered
Status Code: Full
Age range: Anglian Stage (QA) — Wolstonian Stage (QO)
Lithological Description: [Obsolete: use LEY] Gravel with subsidiary beds of sand. Dominantly pale olive brown and pale pinkish brown pebble-cobble-boulder gravels. Typically clast supported with medium to coarse quartzose and felsitic sand matrix. Clasts are typically subrounded and rounded and dominated by felsite with less common metasediments, red granites and mafic igneous lithologies. Sand interbeds are medium to coarse grained and both felsitic and quartzose. Locally the gravels and sands display Fe and Mn stains and cements. The deposit displays large-scale cross-beds and is locally deformed (faulted and folded by ice melt-out). Palaeocurrent analysis indicates transport to the northwest, west and southwest. Interpreted as glaciodeltaic and glaciofluvial outwash.
Definition of Lower Boundary: The base of the unit has been observed in geological test pits within Leys Quarry (disused) to have a sharp, planar, erosional contact on olive-brown sandy diamicton of the Leys Till Formation.
Definition of Upper Boundary: In the northwest and northeast faces of Leys Quarry (disused) the formation is observed to have an erosional upper boundary. The overlying Pitscow Sand and Gravel Formation was deposited into a -2m deep channel eroded into the Denend Gravel Formation. In other (southern) faces of the quarry the upper boundary is the ground surface. In this situation the gravels typically display more recent periglacial disturbance (head deposits, involutions and ice-wedge casts).
Thickness: 3 - 6m
Geographical Limits: Buchan, northeast Scotland. This formation is only known within the immediate vicinity of Leys Gravel Quarry (disused) (centred on NK 0040 5250) on Sheet 87W (Ellon). The unit might be regionally significant and present locally across northeast Scotland.
Parent Unit: none recorded or not applicable
Previous Name(s): Leys Gravels [Obsolete Name and Code: Use DNDGR] (-2761)
Denend Gravel Formation (DNDGR)
Denend Gravel Formation (DNDGR)
Denend Member [Obsolete Name and Code: Use DNDGR] (-3365)
Leys Lower Gravels (-867)
Leys Gravel Formation (LEY)
Alternative Name(s): none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Type Section  Northwest and northeast faces of Leys Quarry (disused), 6.5km southeast of Stricken, Buchan, northeast Scotland. Hall and Connell. 1986. 
Reference(s):
Hall, A M and Jarvis, J. 1993. Kirkhill. 225-230 in Gordon, J E and Sutherland, D G (editors), Quaternary of Scotland. Geological Conservation Review Series: 6. (London: Chapman and Hall.) 
Merritt, J W, Auton, C A, Connell, E R, Hall, A M and Peacock, J D. 2003. The Cainozoic geology and landscape evolution of north-east Scotland. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, Sheets 66E, 67, 76E, 77, 86E, 87W, 87E, 95, 96W, 96E and 97 (Scotland) 
Hall, A M. 1984. Leys. 82 in Hall, A M (Editor). Buchan Field Guide. (Cambridge: Quaternary Research Association.) 
Hall, A M and Connell, E R. 1986. A preliminary report on the Quaternary sediments at Leys Gravel Pit at Buchan, Scotland. Quaternary Newsletter, 48, 17-28. 
Hall, A M, Jarvis, J and Duck, R. 1989. Survey of Quaternary deposits adjacent to Kirkhill Quarry. CSD Report 924, (Peterborough: Nature Conservancy Council.) 75pp. 
Merritt, J W, Connell, E R and Bridgland, D R (editors). 2000. The Quaternary of the Banffshire Coast and Buchan; Field Guide. (London: Quaternary Research Association.) 
Sutherland, D G. 1999. Scotland. 99-114 in Bowen D Q (Editor), A revised correlation of Quaternary deposits in the British Isles. Special Report of The Geological Society of London, No.23. 
Connell, E R and Hall, A M. 2000. Kirkhill and Leys quarries. 65-67 in Merritt, J W, Connell, E R and Bridgland, D R (editors), The Quaternary of the Banffshire Coast and Buchan: Field Guide. (London: Quaternary Research Association.) 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
S087