| Computer Code: |
MWHO |
Preferred Map Code: |
notEntered |
| Status Code: |
Full |
| Age range: |
Devensian Stage (QD)
— Devensian Stage (QD) |
| Lithological Description: |
Graded finely laminated silt-clay varves, soft to firm; finely colour-banded, yellowish red, reddish brown and dark greyish brown. |
| Definition of Lower Boundary: |
At its type section it overlies the Lowca Till Member of the Seascale Glacigenic Formation (18.7m depth in Nirex Borehole QBH19 [BGS Registered borehole NX91SE251], as defined in Auton and Merritt, 2004). |
| Definition of Upper Boundary: |
Overlain with a gradational contact by the Fern Bank Silt Member of the Hall Carleton Formation, 13.68m depth in Nirex borehole QBH 19 (as defined in Auton and Merritt, 2004). The Fern Bank Silt Member is only weakly laminated and contains fossil assemblages of marine microplankton. |
| Thickness: |
5.1m exposed at type section. |
| Geographical Limits: |
1:50k Sheet 28 (Whitehaven) beneath the alluvium of the Pow Beck, but can also be applied to any similar Late Devensian varved sequences found in boreholes along the western Cumbrian coast. |
| Parent Unit: |
Gosforth Glacigenic Formation (GOGL)
|
| Previous Name(s): |
Equates with Meadow House Clay Member [Obsolete Name and Code: Use MWHO]
(-1718)
|
| Alternative Name(s): |
none recorded or not applicable
|
| Stratotypes: |
| Type Section |
Nirex Quaternary Borehole QBH 19 (BGS Registered borehole NX91SE/251) sited on the floodplain of the Pow Beck c.300m northnortheast of St Bees Railway Station, St Bees, west Cumbria. Auton, C A and Merritt, J W. 2004. |
| Reference(s): |
| Merritt, J W and Auton, C A. 1997. Quaternary lithostratigraphy of the Sellafield district. Nirex Science Report SA/97/045 (Issue 2.0). [Report prepared for UK Nirex Ltd. 69pp, 5 tables, 20 figures, 14 enclosures and one appendix.] |
| Nirex Science Report SA/97/044 (Issue 2.0) 1998. Analytical studies of the provenance, micropalaeontology and chronology, of Quaternary sediments from the Sellafield area, 1996. |
| Auton, C A, Alexander, S A, Eaton, G P, McMillan, A A, Skinner, A C, and Wealthall, G P. 1997. Logging and interpretation of Quaternary boreholes (QBH) drilled in the Sellafield area during 1966. Nirex Science Report SA/97/043 (Issue 2.0). |
| Auton, C A, and Merritt, J W. 2004. Geological summary report: A review of onshore evidence of late glacial and Holocene sea level change in the St Bees-Sellafield area. British Geological Survey Report EE03_0870 for Halcrow H and S Limited. 49pp. |
| 1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used: |
| none recorded or not applicable |
