Shoreward facies changes and their relation to cyclical sedimentation in part of the Namurian east of Stirling, Scotland

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Abstract
Synopsis: A thick, persistent bed of shale known as the Black Metals, which lies near the middle of the Limestone Coal Group (Namurian, E 1 Zone), was deposited partly under marine conditions. It may be traced with little change over the Central Coalfield, but in the Kincardine Basin east of Stirling it becomes split by sandy beds which increase progressively in number and thickness eastwards so that within only 10 to 15 miles the whole succession is dominantly sandy. Seatearths and coals also appear. Variations in thickness and lithology are traced by means of 80 sections and illustrated by a series of maps. The undivided Black Metals may be considered as part of an unusually thick and persistent cycle, formed during a general, possibly eustatic, rise of sea-level. The complex lithological variations east of Alloa and Grangemouth are thought to be due to the interplay of this major marine transgression and local processes of subsidence and sedimentation, probably including the progressive building out and abandonment of local deltas topped by vegetation, which gave rise to a series of thin, impersistent, coal-bearing cycles within the Black Metals. Faunal alternations in the all-shale successions of the west may reflect the formation of coal-bearing cycles further east.

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