The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Tayport Formation

Computer Code: TYPO Preferred Map Code: notEntered
Status Code: Full
Age range: Famennian Age (DA) — Courceyan Substage (CF)
Lithological Description: The Tayport Formation in the Southern North Sea is composed of alternating mudstone or siltstone beds, up to 15 m thick, and sandstone beds up to 60 m thick. The mudstones are red, reddish brown, grey, greenish grey or occasionally purple, and the sandstones are grey, purplish grey or white. The thickest sandstones display complex, upward-fining, or blocky gamma-log motifs. Their grain sizes range from fine to coarse; they are locally pebbly, and are poorly sorted. The formation displays gross upward-coarsening trends in well 37/10-1 and below 2595 m in 38/24-1. The sediments are commonly micaceous, and they are locally very micaceous.
Definition of Lower Boundary: The base of the Tayport Formation has not been penetrated in the Southern North Sea. In the Central North Sea, the formation rests on fluvial sandstones of the Buchan Formation (Cameron 1993). The Buchan Formation may also occur beneath the Tayport Formation in the Southern North Sea.
Definition of Upper Boundary: Over the crest of the Mid North Sea High, the Tayport Formation is unconformably overlain by Upper Permian carbonates and evaporites of the Zechstein Group. Along the southern flank of the High, the formation is conformably overlain by dolomitic carbonates (cementstones) and clastic sediments of the Cementstone Formation, the boundary being marked by the base of the sonic-log spike corresponding to the lowest cementstone bed (e.g. 44/2-1).
Thickness: Maximum drilled thickness is 649 m in well 37/10-1.
Geographical Limits: The Tayport Formation has been proved by wells along the crest and southern flank of the Mid North Sea High. As equivalent sediments are absent in much of central and northern England (Dineley 1990), the formation may not extend far to the south of well 44/2-1 offshore.
Parent Unit: Upper Old Red Group [Offshore] (UPOR)
Previous Name(s): Tayport Formation [Obsolete Code: Use TYPO] (TAYP)
Alternative Name(s): none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Type Section  North Sea well 21/02- 7 (Cameron 1993, p.140): 3714-3869 m (12185-12693 ft) below KB. 
Reference Section  North Sea well 37/10- 1: 1822.5-2471.5 m TD (5980-8108 ft TD) (Cameron, 1993). 
Reference Section  North Sea well 37/23- 1: 2313.5-2537 m TD (7590-8324 ft TD) (Cameron, 1993). 
Reference Section  North Sea well 38/24- 1: 2465-2777 m TD (8088-9110 ft TD) (Cameron, 1993). 
Reference(s):
Waters, C N, Gillespie, M R, Smith, K, Auton, C A, Floyd, J D, Leslie, A G, Millward, D, Mitchell, W I, McMillan, A A, Stone, P, Barron, A J M, Dean, M T, Hopson, P M, Krabbendam, M, Browne, M A E, Stephenson, D, Akhurst, M C, and Barnes, R P. 2007. Stratigraphical Chart of the United Kingdom: Northern Britain. (British Geological Survey.) 
Waters, C N, Smith, K, Hopson, P M, Wilson, D, Bridge, D M, Carney, J N, Cooper, A H, Crofts, R G, Ellison, R A, Mathers, S J, Moorlock, B S P, Scrivener, R C, McMillan, A A, Ambrose, K, Barclay, W J, and Barron, A J M. 2007. Stratigraphical Chart of the United Kingdom: Southern Britain. British Geological Survey, 1 poster. 
Cameron, T D J. 1993. 4. Triassic, Permian and pre-Permian of the Central and Northern North Sea. In: Knox, R W O'B and Cordey, W G (eds.) Lithostratigraphic nomenclature of the UK North Sea. British Geological Survey, Nottingham. 
Dineley, D L. 1992. Devonian. In: Duff, P McL D and Smith, A J (eds.) Geology of England and Wales, 179-205. Geological Society, London. 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
none recorded or not applicable