The Lower Carboniferous rocks of the Carrick-on-Shannon syncline

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Abstract
Summary: Carboniferous limestone of Viséan age occupies much of the district around Carrick-on-Shannon in north-central Ireland. The limestone succession, nearly 3000 feet thick, is composed of alternating groups of thin-bedded limestones-with-shales and massive, crinoidal limestones. Lenticular sheet reefs, composed largely of unbedded calcite-mudstone, are interbedded with the uppermost massive limestones. The limestones are ascribed zonal positions ranging from Upper Caninian to Lower Dibunophyllidan. The calcareous rocks are underlain by conglomerates and sandstones, 500 feet thick, which rest unconformably on sediments of Old Red Sandstone age, and overlain by a thick series of goniatitic black shales of Bollandian and Namurian age. Compared with the Lower Carboniferous rocks lying north of the Ox Mountains, the Carrick succession is less thick and is of markedly different facies. This is attributed principally to influence of the contemporary barrier of the Ox anticline and possibly of the Curlew anticline. The Carrick syncline is a composite downwarp consisting of a system of pitching folds arranged in echelon and traversed by a number of faults including important wrench-faults. The structures have a caledonoid trend derived from the sub-Carboniferous foundation.

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