Park Hill Limestone Member
Park Hill Limestone Member (PAL), Carboniferous, Northern England Province
Park Hill Limestone member is part of the Great Scar Limestone Group
Name
The name was given by Pattison (1990)[1] for the lower part of the Scandal Beck Limestone Formation.
Lithology
Limestone and dolostone, fine-grained grainstone and packstone, dark grey to buff, wavy-bedded, interbedded with sandstone, siltstone and mudstone. The limestone lacks the common occurrence of corals, typical of the overlying Coupland Syke Limestone Member.
Stratotype
Partial type section is the course of the Rais Beck (NY 6393 0681 to 6428 0693), north of Fawcett Mill, by the village of Orton, Cumbria where about 20 m of limestone with thin beds of dolostone, sandstone and siltstone near the top of the member are patchily exposed (see Pattison, 1990[1]).
Lower and upper boundaries
In the Ravenstonedale area, the base of the member coincides with the top of the Algal Nodular Beds at the top of Coldbeck Limestone Formation, the latter comprising well bedded limestones with mudstone partings, and flaggy dolostones with algal macrostructures.
The top of the member occurs beneath the more regularly bedded and fossiliferous packstones with thin mudstone and siltstone interbeds of the overlying Coupland Syke Limestone Member (COSL) (Figure 9, Column 16). The junction is taken at the top of a 5 m-thick sandstone and mudstone unit that forms a topographical depression.
Thickness
Between 50 and 75 m
Distribution and regional correlation
Ravenstonedale, Cumbria between the M6 road and the Dent Fault Zone, south of Kirkby Stephen.
Age
Chadian