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East Yorkshire (and North Lincolnshire) Chalk Lithostratigraphy.

Definitions:

All the Formations contain marl bands and the thicker ones have been named or numbered. Some formations contain bands of flint. Click here for a graphic log.

Red Chalk Formation (= Hunstanton Formation of Felix Whitham and Simon Mitchell). Red coloured chalks and marls with an erosion surface at base lying on Carstone in the south or Speeton Clay in the north. In the central parts of the Yorkshire Wolds (e.g. Market Weighton by-pass, Rifle Butts, Millington) there are lydian pebbles (similar to those in the Carstone in the basal part of the Formation). The red or pink colouration continues up into the Ferriby Formation at Speeton and so is not in itself diagnostic of the Formation.

Ferriby Formation. (note- the Ferriby Formation of Chris Wood includes the Albian Red Chalk at base). Chalk and marly chalk without flints, with (certainly in the south and central parts of the region) a orange coloured marl on an erosion surface at base. Includes in the southern and central parts of the region some distinctive beds (listed in ascending order):-

Grey Bed (Totternhoe Stone of Felix Whitham) - hard, grey, gritty chalk rich in fossils.

Lower Pink Band - pale pink or yellowish Chalk quite rich in fossils.

Nettletone Stone - greyish hard chalk with a band of oysters at base (= "Gryphaea Band" or "Nettleton Pycenodonte Bed"

Upper Pink Band - pale pink or yellowish chalk.

Welton Formation - Chalk with nodular with Black Band Member at base on top of an erosion surface.

Black Band Member ( a.k.a. Black Band, "variegated beds" of Paul Hildreth, Plenus Marls of Felix Whitham) - a series of marly beds with on or more black laminated clay in the centre. There is an erosion surface at the base. The top is hard to define as the members becomes increasingly less marly before an influx of Inoceramus shells. For a detailed description of the Black Band Member click here.

Burnham Formation - Chalk with tabular flints or large nodular flints or paramudras. The Ravendale Flint is at the base.

Flamborough Formation - Chalk without flints. The base is defined as being the top of the High Stacks Flint - the youngest flint on the coastal exposure; but that boundary is probably diachronous. Felix Whitham has divided the Formation into three members, but the sedimentary features of these are not very distinctive:-

South Landing Member - hard white massively bedded chalk with thin marls.

Danes Dyke Member - softer chalk, with less massive beds in the lower and middle parts, and more numerous marl bands and stylolites. Base marked by East Nook Marl.

Sewerby Member - lithology variable. Base marked by Danes Dyke Upper Marl.

References:

Hildreth P 1999. The variegated Beds Member of the Welton Chalk Formation of North Lincolnshire. Humberside Geologist 12, 18-30.

Horne M 1991, The Black Band Member. p 12 13 of L H Emery. M J Horne & F Whitham South Ferriby and Welton Wold [Field Meeting] 15 June 1991. Yorkshire Geological Society.

Mitchell S F 1995. Lithostratigraphy and biostratigraphy of the Hunstanton Formation (Red Chalk, Cretaceous) succession at Speeton, North Yorkshire, England. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 50, 285-303.

Mitchell S F 2000. The Welton Formation (Chalk Group) at Speeton, NE England; implications for the late Cretaceous evolution of the Market Weighton Structure. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 53, 17-24.

Whitham F 1991. The stratigraphy of the Upper Cretaceous Ferriby, Welton and Burnham Formations north of the Humber, north east England. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 48, 227-254.

Whitham F 1993. The stratigraphy of the Upper Cretaceous Flamborough Chalk Formation north of the Humber, north east England. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 49, 235-258.

Wood C J & Smith E G 1978. Lithostratigraphical classification of the Chalk in North Yorkshire, Humberside and Lincolnshire. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 42, 263-287.

Wood C J 1980. Upper Cretaceous. p 92 105 of Kent P British Regional Geology. Geology of Eastern England from the Tees to the Wash. H.M.S.O. 155pp.