The Faunal Succession in the Carboniferous Limestone (Upper Avonian) of the Midland Area [North Derbyshire and North Staffordshire

Abstract

1. I ntroduction . The area of Avonian rocks with which this paper deals, and which I term the Midland Area, includes the large, irregularly-shaped periclinal mass of Carboniferous Limestone, forming the southern termination of the Pennine anticline, south of the Peak, and comprises also a few small inliers adjacent to this main outcrop. (See map, fig. 1, p. 35.) The main part of this area is included in Derbyshire, but a small, south-western portion lies in Staffordshire. In the Geological-Survey Memoir on North Derbyshire, the Carboniferous-Limestone succession of this area, as shown by the extensive section between Buxton and Monsal Dale, is briefly described; details of a few other sections are given; and the nature of the junction between the Carboniferous Limestone and the overlying shales, as seen at various points, is discussed. An account of the elementary tectonics of the area, and of the general features of the Carboniferous Limestone, is contained in a paper by Mr. H. H. Arnold-Bemrose, entitled ‘A Sketch of the Geology of the Lower Carboniferous Rocks of Derbyshire,’ published in the Proceedings of the Geologis'ts’ Association, vol. xvi (1899–1900) p. 165. Details of a new sections in the area are given in papers by Mr. Arnold-Bemrose and by Dr. Wheelton Hind, published in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society and elsewhere: I refer to these in the course of the present paper. The tectonic structure of this area has not yet been adequately investigated. However, the detailed mapping of the igneous rocks associated with