The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Whitehills Grit Formation

Computer Code: WHSG Preferred Map Code: WhsG
Status Code: Full
Age range: Neoproterozoic Era (AZ) — Neoproterozoic Era (AZ)
Lithological Description: Coarse-grained psammites, commonly gritty, and quartzites, with subsidiary semipelite and pelite; gritty units and semipelites in part calcareous.
Definition of Lower Boundary: Local unconformity at incoming of first major psammite bed above thin-bedded calcareous semipelites of Boyne Limestone Formation.
Definition of Upper Boundary: Transition from partly calcareous semipelite and psammite to non-calcareous lithologies at top of Whitehills Grit Formation; commonly marked by change to graded coarse gritty psammite and semipelite.
Thickness: Probably c.1km, but coast section includes considerable repetition by folding.
Geographical Limits: From Moray Firth coast [NJ 655 652-NJ 789 635] southwards to northern margin of Insch intrusion [NJ 650 325 to NJ 725 305].
Parent Unit: Southern Highland Group (SOHI)
Previous Name(s): Upper Part Of Whitehills Grit (-609)
Alternative Name(s): none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Type Section  Coastal section from Whyntie Head to Craig Neen, Whitehills. 
Reference(s):
Read, H H, 1923. Geology of the country around Banff, Huntly and Turriff, Lower Banffshire and north-west Aberdeenshire. Memoir of the Geological Survey, Scotland Sheets 86 and 96 (Scotland). 
Stephenson, D and Gould, D. 1995. British Regional Geology: the Grampian Highlands (4th edition). (London: HMSO for the British Geological Survey), 67-68. 
Harris, A L, Haselock, P J, Kennedy, M J and Mendum, J R, 1994. The Dalradian Supergroup in Scotland, Shetland and Ireland. 33-53 in Gibbons, W E and Harris, A L (editors). A revised correlation of Precambrian rocks in the British Isles. Special Report of the Geological Society, London, No.22. 
Stephenson, D, et al. 1993. Stratigraphy and correlation of the Dalradian rocks of the East Grampian Project area. British Geological Survey Technical Report WA/93/91. 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
S096 S096 S086 S086