The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Alveley Member

Computer Code: ALY Preferred Map Code: Aly
Status Code: Full
Age range: Asturian Substage (CAS) — Asturian Substage (CAS)
Lithological Description: Red mudstone and sandstone, fine- to medium-grained with thin 'Spirobis' limestone beds and pedogenic limestone (caliche). Sandstone mostly sublitharenite.
Definition of Lower Boundary: Conformable, transitional-gradational boundary, arbitrarily taken at the base of the first major red-bed stratum, overlying the grey mudstone-dominated Dark Slade Member of the Halesowen Formation.
Definition of Upper Boundary: Poorly defined, but arbitrarily taken at the base of a sandstone-dominated succession (Enville Member), characterised by conglomerates and pebbly sandstones with extrabasinal clasts, commonly of Carboniferous limestone and chert.
Thickness: 152 to 274m in Alveley area; 50 to 140m in south Staffordshire.
Geographical Limits: West Midlands and Salop.
Parent Unit: Salop Formation (SAL)
Previous Name(s): Coventry Sandstone Formation [Obsolete Name And Code: See ASY] (CYS)
Keele Beds [Obsolete Name and Code: Use RWD, ALY, KE] (-1947)
Keele Formation [Obsolete Name And Code: Use ALY] (KE)
Alternative Name(s): none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Reference Section  Alveley-1 Borehole: from surface to 76.8m. (SO 78 NE/2). Besly and Cleal, 1997. 
Type Area  Quarries and stream sections around Alveley, from River Severn northeast to Bobbington area. 
Reference Section  BGS Daleswood Farm Borehole (SO97NE/452) from 97.7m (top) to 147.4m depth (base). Glover and Powell, 1996. 
Reference(s):
Waters, C N, Waters, R A, Barclay, W J, and Davies, J R. 2009. Lithostratigraphical framework for Carboniferous successions of Southern Great Britain (Onshore). British Geological Survey Research Report, RR/09/01. 184pp. 
Powell, J H, Chisholm, JI, Bridge, D M, Rees, J G, Glover, B W and Besly, B M. 2000. Stratigraphical framework for Westphalian to Early Permian red-bed successions of the Pennine Basin. British Geological Survey Technical Report WA/99/10. 
Whitehead, T H and Pocock, R W. 1947. Geology of the country around Dudley and Bridgnorth. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, Sheet 167. (England and Wales). 
Besly, B M, not yet published. Late Carboniferous lithostratigraphy and the nature of the intra-Westphalian `Symon Unconformity' in the West Midlands, UK. 
Besly, B M and Cleal, C J, 1997. Upper Carboniferous stratigraphy of the West Midlands (UK) revised in the light of borehole geophysical logs and detrital compositional suites. Geological Journal 32, 85 - 118. 
Whitehead, T H and Eastwood, T, 1927. The geology of the southern part of the South Staffordshire Coalfield. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. 
Glover, B M and Powell, J H, 1996. Interaction of climate and tectonics upon alluvial architecture: Late Carboniferous-Early Permian sequences at the southern margin of the Pennine Basin, UK. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology and Palaeoecology, Vol. 121, 13 - 34. 
Eastwood, T, Whitehead, T H, and Robertson, T. 1925. The geology of the country around Birmingham. Memoir of the British Geological Survey of Great Britain. 
Powell, J H, Glover, B W and Waters, C N, 1992. A Geological background for planning and development in the `Black Country'. British Geological Survey Technical Report WA/92/33. 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
E168 E167 E123 E154 E153 E139 E138 E201