Benton, M.J., Cook, E. & Turner, P. 2002. Permian and Triassic Red Beds and the Penarth Group of Great Britain. Geological Conservation Review Series, No. 24, JNCC, Peterborough, ISBN 1 86 107 493 X. The original source material for these web pages has been made available by the JNCC under the Open Government Licence 3.0. Full details in the JNCC Open Data Policy

Chapter 3 British Triassic red beds

British Triassic red-bed GCR sites

It is impossible to document a typical succession of the British Triassic red beds in any single part of the country since each sedimentary basin shows its own unique developments (Warrington et al., 1980). Therefore, in this chapter, the GCR localities are assigned to regional site networks, broadly representing the major basins of sedimentation.

  • Moray Firth Basin, north-east Scotland (2 sites),
  • the Western Highlands and Islands and Arran (4 sites),
  • West Cumbria and East Irish Sea Basin (5 sites),
  • the Cheshire Basin (5 sites),
  • the western North Sea Basin (4 sites),
  • the Central Midlands (6 sites),
  • South Wales (4 sites), and
  • Devon (2 sites).

The broad stratigraphy and sedimentary features of each basin are outlined section by section; a total of 32 GCR sites have been selected to illustrate the key features (Figure 3.1). However, some sites described in Chapter 4 of the present volume — primarily selected for the GCR for the Penarth Group successions — also contain important Triassic red beds. In fact, in the 1980s, Aust Cliff (described in Chapter 4) was selected for both the Permian-Triassic Red Beds and the former 'Rhaetian' GCR Blocks independently.

References