The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Ehen Valley Sand And Gravel Member

Computer Code: EVSG Preferred Map Code: notEntered
Status Code: Full
Age range: Devensian Stage (QD) — Devensian Stage (QD)
Lithological Description: Pale yellowish brown fine- to medium-grained quartzose sand, which coarsens upwards into pebbly sand and then into gravel. Coal debris is a common component and microfaults, shears and cracks (lined with reddish brown silt and clay) are characteristic of its upper few metres. It forms part of the infill of the buried valleys of the Ehen, Calder and lower Uldale. Cross-lamination within the sand indicates that it was deposited by southward directed braided outwash streams on sandur, probably during the deglaciation of the main Late Devensian ice sheet.
Definition of Lower Boundary: At its type site a gradational contact on to the Ehen Valley Silt Member of the Seascale Glacigenic Formation. Elsewhere it overlies either the Catgill Wood Sand and Gravel Member, which is typified by rounded cobbles of red (Permian) and yellow (Carboniferous) sandstone, or the Low Wath Till Member of the Seascale Glacigenic Formation.
Definition of Upper Boundary: Generally unconformably overlain by diamictons of the Roythersyke Till Member of the Gosforth Glacigenic Formation.
Thickness: Typically between 9.0 and 30m
Geographical Limits: On 50k Sheets 28 (Whitehaven) and 37 (Gosforth).
Parent Unit: Seascale Glacigenic Formation (SEAG)
Previous Name(s): Middle Sands and Gravels [Obsolete Name and Code: Use GFSA, SEAG, CGWD, LOGG, PLSG, PFS, EVSI, THBG, EVSG] (-122)
Middle Sands and Gravels [Obsolete Name and Code: Use GFSA, SEAG, CGWD, LOGG, PLSG, PFS, EVSI, THBG, EVSG] (-122)
Alternative Name(s): none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Partial Type Section  "Rothersyke Scar" river cliff section on the western side of the River Ehen, between Rothersyke House and Low Mill; c.300m west of Thornhill village, west Cumbria. Logs NY00NW ME6a-c of Nirex Science Report 768 (1995). Nirex Science Report SA/97/045 (Issue 2.0) 1997. 
Partial Type Section  Sand pit 150m southwest of Catgill Hall, c.1km southwest of Egremont and c.0.9km westnorthwest of Thornhill, west Cumbria. Logs NY00NW ME7a and 7b of Nirex Science Report 768 (1995). Nirex Science Report SA/97/045 (Issue 2.0) 1997. 
Reference(s):
Eastwood T, and others. 1968. Geology of the country around Whitehaven. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Sheet 28 (England and Wales). 
Trotter, F M, Hollingworth, S E, Eastwood T and Rose, W C C. 1937. Gosforth District. Geological Survey Memoir, England and Wales, Sheet 37. 
Merritt, J W, Auton, C A, Browne, M A E, Neilson, G and McMillan, A A. 1995. Characterisation of the onshore Quaternary deposits around Sellafield, Cumbria, Phase II. Nirex Science Report 768. 
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.] 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
none recorded or not applicable