The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Marsden Formation

Computer Code: MARSD Preferred Map Code: notEntered
Status Code: Full
Age range: Marsdenian Substage (CZ) — Marsdenian Substage (CZ)
Lithological Description: Fine- to very coarse-grained and pebbly feldspathic sandstone, interbedded with grey siltstone and mudstone, and subordinate marine black shales, thin coals and seatearths.
Definition of Lower Boundary: The sharp conformable base of the formation is taken at the base of the dark grey fissile mudstone of the Bilinguites gracilis Marine Band, with eponymous fauna where the formation overlies the Hebden Formation. In the southern part of the Askrigg Block, where the marine band is absent, the base of the formation is taken at the base of the Wandley Gill Shale, described by Wilson and Thompson (1965) as 3 m of shale with a Lingula Band at the base, overlying a seatearth at the top of the Upper Brimham Grit. In the Stainmore Trough the base of the formation is taken at the base of a 6 m thick shale with Productus carbonarius, which overlies a 0.15 m-thick shaly coal (Owens and Burgess, 1965). In the southern part of the Central Pennine Basin the base of the formation is taken at the base of the first thick quartz-feldspathic sandstone of Marsdenian age present above the Bowland Shale Formation.
Definition of Upper Boundary: The sharp conformable base of the dark grey, fissile mudstone of the Cancelloceras cancellatum Marine Band with eponymous fauna, overlain by a dark grey mudstone-dominated succession in the lower part of the Rossendale Formation. In the Stainmore Trough, the equivalent of this marine band, but lacking the diagnostic ammonoid fauna, was referred to as the Swinstone Bottom Marine Band (Owens and Burgess, 1965).
Thickness: Up to 600m thick between Preston and Macclesfield; Bradford 275m; north Derbyshire 450m; 15m thick in the Kirkby Malzeard area of the Askrigg Block; 40m thick in the Stainmore Trough.
Geographical Limits: Lancashire and west Yorkshire between Lancaster [SD 47 61] and Harrogate [SE 30 55], extending southward to north Staffordshire [SK06], and north to the Askrigg Block and Stainmore Trough.
Parent Unit: Millstone Grit Group [See Also MIGR] (MG)
Previous Name(s): Middle Grit Group [Obsolete Name and Code: Use MARSD, MGT] (-2310)
Middle Grit [Obsolete Name And Code: Use MARSD] (MGT)
Alternative Name(s): none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Partial Type Section  Stream section at Park Clough, Hey Green near Marsden, West Yorkshire with 20m of dark grey mudstone from the lower part of the Marsden Formation including the Bilinguites gracilis Marine Band, above 15m of cross-bedded sandstone of the Hebden Formation. Ramsbottom, 1981. (International Stratotype for the Marsdenian Stage). 
Reference(s):
Price, D, Wright, W B, Jones, R C B, Tonks, L H and Whitehead, T H. 1963. Geology of the country around Preston. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Sheet 75 (England and Wales). 
Stevenson, I P and Gaunt, G D, 1971. Geology of the country around Chapel-en-le-Frith. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, England and Wales, Sheet 99. 
Dean, M T, Browne, M A E, Waters, C N and Powell, J H. 2011. A lithostratigraphical framework for the Carboniferous successions of northern Great Britain (onshore). British Geological Survey Research Report, RR/10/007. 165pp. 
Ramsbottom, W H C. 1981. Fieldguide to the boundary stratotypes of the Carboniferous stages in Britain. Biennial Meeting of the Subcommisson of Carboniferous Stratigraphy, Leeds. 
Waters, C N, Barclay, W J, Davies, J R and Waters, R A. In press. Stratigraphical framework for Carboniferous successions of Southern Great Britain (Onshore). British Geological Survey Research Report, RR/05/06. 
Brandon, A, Aitkenhead, N, Crofts, R G, Ellison, R A, Evans, D J and Riley, JN J, 1998. Geology of the country around Lancaster. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, Sheet 59 (England and Wales). 
Stephens, J V, Mitchell, G H and Edwards, W N. 1953. Geology of the country between Bradford and Skipton. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Sheet 69 (England and Wales). 
Wilson, A A and Thompson, A T. 1965. The Carboniferous section in the Kirkby Malzeard area, Yorkshire. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society. Vol 35, 203-227. 
Owens, B and Burgess, I C. 1965. The stratigraphy and palynology of the Upper Carboniferous outlier of Stainmore, Westmorland. Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, N.23, 17-44. 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
E123 E124 E125 E059 E068 E069 E070 E075 E076 E077 E086 E099