The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Bovisand Formation

Computer Code: BOV Preferred Map Code: Bov
Status Code: Full
Age range: Pragian Age (DP) — Emsian Age (DE)
Lithological Description: Slaty mudstone, medium to dark grey, with thin sandstone beds and sporadic thin limestone beds. Packets of quartzitic sandstone beds are present in the form of the Upper and Lower Longsands Sandstone members.
Definition of Lower Boundary: Faulted out; overthrust by the Whitsand Bay Formation. Transitional boundary with Whitsand Bay Formation in the Rame Peninsula; grey slaty mudstone passing down into purple slaty mudstone.
Definition of Upper Boundary: Faulted out; Bovisand Formation thrust over the Staddon Formation for much of the area.
Thickness: At least 1300m.
Geographical Limits: Geological sheets 348 and 349 (not mapped elsewhere).
Parent Unit: Meadfoot Group (MDT)
Previous Name(s): Meadfoot Group (MDT)
Meadfoot Beds (-76)
Meadfoot Group (MDT)
Bovisand Formation [Obsolete Code: Use BOV] (BVSB)
Alternative Name(s): none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Type Area  Cliff section between Harry's Ball Cliff and Tregantle Cliff. 
Reference(s):
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. 
Champernowne, A. 1881. Notes on a find of Homalontus in the Red Beds at Torquay. Geological Magazine, Vol.8, 487-488. 
Harwood, G M, 1976. The Staddon Grits - or the Meadfoot Beds? Proceedings of the Ussher Society, Vol.3, 333-338. 
Seago, R D and Chapman, T J, 1988. The confrontation of structural styles and the evolution of a foreland basin in central south-west England. Journal of the Geological Society of London, Vol.145, 789-800. 
Ussher, W A E. 1907. The Geology of the country around Plymouth and Liskeard. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Sheet 348 (England and Wales). 
Leveridge B E, Holder, M T, Goode, A J J, Scrivener R C, Jones N S and Merriman, R J. 2002. Geology of the Plymouth and south-east Cornwall area. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, Sheet 348 (England and Wales). 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
E348 E350