Abstract
SUMMARY The physical and chemical properties of a bitumen located in veins cutting the Great Limestone at Moot Law Quarry (NZ 010768), Northumberland have been assessed and it has been classified as an albertite or epi-impsonite. Several similar occurrences are also described from adjacent Great Limestone quarries including a multiphase bitumen from Kirkheaton (NZ 018773) and a contact metamorphosed bitumen from a quarry near Capheaton (NZ 016787). This Capheaton occurrence exhibits a characteristic mesophase structure implying contact metamorphism by an adjacent Whin dyke. The bitumen is thus pre-Whin dyke in age which allows two possibilities for its genesis: 1. If the Whin dyke post dates the Whin Sill then the bitumen may be a pyrolysate from closer to the sill contact, which has condensed in cooler overlying strata and been metamorphosed by the later dyke. 2. If the Whin dyke and sill were intruded together then the most likely origin of the bitumen is probably related to an earlier period of heating of the Carboniferous sediments overlying the Alston Block to the south.
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