The Post-Silurian Pre-Marine Carboniferous Sedimentary Rocks of the Eastern Side of the English Lake District

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Abstract
Summary: The post-Silurian, pre-marine Carboniferous rocks of the eastern side of the Lake District comprise a variety of clastic sediments, mainly red conglomerates. They consist of two main groups, the older—the Mell Fell Conglomerate—being unconformably overlain by Carboniferous Limestone and possibly therefore of Lower Old Red Sandstone age. The Mell Fell Conglomerate is some 5000 feet thick, the lower part being mainly greywacke-cobble-conglomerate, the higher beds being finer conglomerates and coarse sandstone with a mixed assemblage of derived pebbles. It is probably a piedmont deposit of locally derived material in a region of pronounced relief. The younger group is best developed in the Birk Beck valley, where three divisions are recognized—a lower local subaqueous fan conglomerate, a middle group of red sandstones and an upper yellow conglomerate. These Carboniferous (probably Z), though a break exists at the base of the red sandstones. These sandstones are composed of wind-rounded grains, laid down under water, probably in a flood-plain that periodically dried out. In the Ravenstonedale district, the Pinskey Gill Beds may be contemporaneous with the lower conglomerates of Birk Beck, both being deposited in saline water.

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