The Geological Structure of Wirral

Abstract

The rocks of the Wirral Peninsula in Cheshire were originally described by John Cunningham in 1839, as three series, two moderately resistant to the east and the west, separated by a central region of soft sandstones and marls, dipping uniformly eastwards. G. H. Morton noted this in 1872, as a good description of the strata, ignoring faults, and pointed out the significance of the faulting. Since that date the faults have been mapped in great detail, and most of the structural features ascribed to them. G. H. Morton was particularly accurate with his mapping of faults both in Liverpool (1899), and in Storeton (G. H. Morton, 1883, and H. C. Beasley, 1914). The folding finds its first mention in the Geological Survey Memoir of 1923, two elongated synclines being mentioned, one from Heswall northwards and the other from Storeton to Prenton. The former is undoubtedly an important synclinal feature, but the latter is made up of two folds, a north to south anticline at Storeton, and an east to west syncline at Prenton. The only other records of folding in Wirral are by F. T. Maidwell in 1920 and by T. A. Jones in 1937, who mention an anticline at Ellesmere Port. This paper is therefore chiefly devoted to a description of the folding in the area.