SUBMARINE SLUMPING AND SLIDING IN THE LOWER MAGNESIAN LIMESTONE OF NORTHUMBERLAND AND DURHAM

Abstract

Summary The effects of submarine slumping and sliding which occurred in north-east Durham and south-east Northumberland in early and late Lower Magnesian Limestone times are described and discussed. The earlier slumps affected a thin group of beds some three to seven metres above the Marl Slate and gave rise to disturbed beds and turbidites extending, perhaps discontinuously, from near Sunderland to the River Tees. The later episode, which is perhaps more correctly described as a slide, occurred at the end of Lower Magnesian Limestone times and is thought to have removed as much as twenty five metres of this formation from parts of an area of perhaps two hundred square kilometres, mainly north of Sunderland. It is suggested that sliding on this scale is most likely to have been initiated by an earthquake shock.