Revision of the late Dinantian sequence in Edinburgh and West Lothian

Abstract

Synopsis An appraisal of exposed sections, mainly in the Water of Leith, and of the faunas collected from them, suggests a reinterpretation of the link between the well-known sequence in the West Lothian oil-shale field and the more fragmentary sections in Edinburgh. The Humbie Shell Bed of West Lothian and the Redhall Marine Band of Edinburgh were formerly supposed to lie respectively above and below the Hailes Sandstone, but are now thought to be the same bed, and to underlie the Hailes Sandstone. The evidence now available suggests that this marine band is the lowest of the Macgregor Marine Bands in the area. Four more marine bands in the underlying sequence in the Water of Leith cannot at present be recognized elsewhere. The lithostratigraphical units Wardie Shales and Queensferry Beds, as formerly defined, were separated by the Hailes Sandstone, but the revised correlation implies that the sandstone lies within, not below, the Queensferry Beds. These units can no longer be used in their original sense, therefore, and a new stratigraphical nomenclature is proposed. The top of the Wardie Shales, formerly drawn at the base of the Hailes Sandstone, is now taken at the Redhall Marine Band. The strata above the marine band already belong to the Calders Member of the West Lothian Oil-Shale Formation, so the term Queensferry Beds becomes redundant, and the Hailes Sandstone becomes a unit within the Calders Member.