The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Embsay Limestone Member

Computer Code: EML Preferred Map Code: notEntered
Status Code: Full
Age range: Chadian Substage (CI) — Arundian Substage (CJ)
Lithological Description: Pale packstones and grainstone, frequently pellety or oolitic and locally cherty, interbedded with dark, calcareous, silty mudstones, calcisiltites, conglomerates and breccias.
Definition of Lower Boundary: Drawn at base of boulder beds of the Embsay Limestone Member where it rests unconformably on mudstones. ('Halton Shales with Limestone' of Hudson and Mitchell, 1937).
Definition of Upper Boundary: Drawn at conformable upward passage from limestone of the Embsay Limestone Member to shaly calcisiltites and mudstones. ('Skibeden Shales with Limestone' of Hudson and Mitchell, 1937).
Thickness: Up to 100 metres.
Geographical Limits: Craven Basin, north-west England. (Lothersdale and Skipton Anticlines).
Parent Unit: Hodder Mudstone Formation (HOM)
Previous Name(s): Main Limestone (ML)
Embsay Limestone [Obsolete Name and Code: Use EML] (-3386)
Main Limestone (ML)
Alternative Name(s): none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Type Section  Embsay Beck, Embsay, near Skipton, north Yorkshire. 
Reference Section  Large quarry exposure at Ray Gill Delf, near Skipton, north Yorkshire, England. 
Reference Section  Large quarry exposure at Dowshaw Delf, near Skipton, north Yorkshire, England. 
Reference(s):
Hudson, R G S and Mitchell, G H, 1937. The Carboniferous geology of the Skipton Anticline. Geological Survey of Great Britain, Summary of Progress for 1935, part 2, p.1-45. 
Earp, J R, Magraw, D, Poole, E G, Land, D H and Whiteman, A J, 1961. Geology of the country around Clitheroe and Nelson. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Sheet.68, England and Wales, pp.346. 
Metcalfe, I, 1981. Conodont zonation and correlation of the Dinantian and early Namurian strata of the Craven Lowlands of Northern England. Institute of Geological Sciences, Report No. 80/10, p.1-70. 
Fewtrell, M D and Smith, D G, 1980. Revision of the Dinantian stratigraphy of the Craven Basin, N. England. Geological Magazine, Vol.117, p.37-49. 
Bray, A. 1927. The Carboniferous sequence between Lothersdale and Cowling (Colne). Journal of the Manchester Geological Association, Vol.1, 44-57. 
Riley N J. 1990. Stratigraphy of the Worston Shale Group (Dinantian) Craven Basin, north-west England. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society, Vol. 48, 163-187. 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
E069