BASEMENT CONTROL OF CARBONIFEROUS SEDIMENTATION IN NORTHERN ENGLAND

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Abstract
Summary: Geophysical evidence has provided an explanation for the disposition of massif and basinal structural regions in northern England. The massifs are underlain by granite masses of Caledonian age or older which have exerted a strong positive tectonic control since their emplacement in Devonian or earlier times. These positive structural regions formed gradually dwindling islands and uplands during Carboniferous times at least until the late Viséan and in some cases considerably later. Structural basins and troughs surrounded the island areas and here great thicknesses of sediments were deposited. Deposition began in Tournaisian times and in some regions was a continuation of Old Red Sandstone sedimentation. Subsidence, forming basins of deposition and causing the initial Carboniferous marine transgression, is shown to be of tectonic origin. Early basin formation and later, and more widespread, epeirogenic subsidence are linked to isostatic uplift of the Caledonian mountain ranges following the mantle flow theory (Bott, 1964a). Throughout the Carboniferous Period the Basement exerted a profound tectonic control on sedimentation. The distribution of sedimentary facies in basinal and cratonic regions is dependent on this control as is the continuous supply of clastic sediment. It forms the controlling mechanism of cyclic sedimentation of Yoredale and to some extent Coal Measures facies. The disposition of some Carboniferous knoll reefs may also have a basement control.

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