2

of Eacies 3
ThePersistence

TheNatureof theStratigraphical
Record

Similarly, at the other end of the belt, Chalk was later

discovered in south-west Ireland (where it must have been
noticed by the early surveyors,but they had evidently been too
scared of their autocratic director to record such an unlikely
phenomenon). Later still it was found covering extensiveareas
of the sea-floorsouth of Ireland.
Now this spread of a uniform faciesis remarkableenough, but
it must alsobe rememberedthat chalk is a very unusual sediment:
an extremely pure coccolithlimestone which is almost unique
in the stratigraphicalcolumn. Nevertheless,there is even worse
to come, for on the other side of the Atlantic in Texas,we find
the Austin Chalk of the same age and character, and later
Cretaceouschalks (still contemporaneouswith the European
development) are found in Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama.
And most surprising of all, much farther away still in Western
Australia, we have the Gingin Chalk of Late Cretaceousage, with
the sameblack flints and the same familiar fossils, resting-as
in north-west Europe-on glauconitic sands.
Unfortunately I have not yet visited Australia, but Dr Andy
Gale tells me (personalcommunication, 1,989)that the succession
of the Upper Cretaceousin WesternAustralia is really remarkably
like that in Britain. It is virtually identical, for example, with that
in Antrim, Northern lreland. Thus glauconiticsandsor gaizeare
followed by glauconiticmarls or mulattoand then by chalk marl
and chalk with flints, containing the same invertebrategenera.
He suggeststhat the fantasticabundanceof coccolithsforming
the chalk (ten times what it is at present) would have modified
the climate dramatically. Coccolith blooms release dimethyl
sulphide which causesnatural acid rain, increasesthe albedo
reflecting solar radiation and reversesthe 'greenhouseeffect'.
This fits in with my ideas of Nature as being the biggest
polluter, since the new-fangled plants first poured that dreadful
element oxygen into our planet's pure atmosphereof methane
and carbon dioxide. Indeed the recent eruption of Pinatubo in
the Philippines has spread dust around the world and has
outdone SadamHussain's efforts in setting fire to the oil-wells
of Kuwait, which it was feared would have disastrous effects
on the atmosphere.
Some generalexplanationis surely neededfor such a wide
distributionof such a uniquefaciesas the chalkc'luring,r short

period of geologicaltime. What is more, there has been no other

deposit quite like it either before or since,exceptperhaps some
Miocenechalks which themselvesare remarkably widespread:
in the western approachesto the English Channel, in Malta,
Cyprus and the Middle East and all the way to New Zealand.
But now let us climb slowly down the stratigraphical column
to see what other widespread facies we can find.
,URGONIAN'

LIMESTONES

'l'owards

the end of early Cretaceoustimes, at the Barremian/

Aptian level, a massivelimestonewas developedthat is usually
t'alledthe 'Urgonian facies'.This can be seenin Portugal where
it forms the karstic, touristic coastwest of Estoril, with strange

I igurr l.l

Sltrtitr(l)VA)
lll'rrrrirlrt *tilrlnniltl ill ('u(nn, srrttl/r-r'rts/

Record
TheNatureof the Stratigraphical

of Facies 5
The Persistence

erosionalshapessuch as the Boca do Inferno (Mouth of Hell).

In Spain it weathers into the mushrooms, ships and other weird
pinnacles of the Ciudad Encantada(EnchantedCity) near where
it shadesthe back streetsof Cuenca (Figure 1.1). It then forms
the magnificent cliffs at Cassis,east of Marseilles.It dominates
the sceneryin the outer ranges of the Alps (for example, the
towering escarpment of Glandasse above Hannibal's route
through the sub-Alps). It caPsmany of the textbook ridges in
the easternpart of the Jura Mountains (Figure 1'.2).It is well
developed all round the Carpathians,in Czechoslovakia,Poland
and Romaniaand then through the BalkanMountains of Bulgaria
(Figure 1.3) and acrossthe Black Sea to the Crimea and the
Caucasus(Figure 1.4).
Typical$, the Urgonian limestonesare thought of as rudist reef
deposits, and locally they show tremendous in-situ growths
of these aberrant bivalves (for example, near the tragic city of
Guernicain northern Spain). Elsewhere-as in the Jura-corals
are more important than rudists and usually it is only a reef
limestone in the broadest Gallic senseof that term; that is to say,
a massive limestone without bedding planes and commonly
recrystallised.It also tends to develop in huge lensesthat pass

Bulgaria
nearGabroao,
aboaeDrvanoaamonastery,
t igura1.3 l)rgonianlimestone

cappinganticlinalridgeof Montagnedc la Bnlnrctrcor

FigureL.2 L)rgonianlimestone
in the Frenchlura (DVA)
Bellegarde

l.rtcrally into other facies(well seen, for example, in Bulgaria).

Sirrcethe publication of the first edition of this book, I have seen
,r rcmarkably similar rock of the same age-the Cupido
l,inrestone-dominating the Mesozoic scenery in north-east
Mexico. A comparablefaciesalso extends down into northern
Af r i c a .
'l'lre
term 'Urgonian' has become almost a dirty word in
'rt.t.rcct)us
(
stratigraphf , for it is not one of the internationallystagt'namesand it is said ttl be a diachronous,southern
.tt'r'cp'rl1'd
but hardly by more than
l,rt'ies,Adnrittedlyit is diachron()us,

The Nature of the StratigraphicalRecord

ThePersistence
of Facies 7
aptychi, nautiloid jaws, specialisedbelemnitesand the aberrant
brachiopodwith the hole in the middle Pygope.Inthe Jura the
'fithonian
can be seen in placesto be a coral reef limestone, but
usually the corals have been obliterated by dolomitisation and
cledolomitisationas is commonly the fate of reefs.
It might also be said that the Portland Limestone of southern
Irrrgland is the Tithonian limestone in yet another form, with
what is mainly a molluscan fauna of limited diversity. But the
tcrm 'Tithonian', though not quite so lacking in respectability
.rs the 'Urgonian', is usually reserved for the carbonatefacies
of alpine Europe, and for years competed with the 'Volgian' the
Ironour of being the acceptedinternationalterm for the topmost
st;rgeof the Jurassic.
In its reef or reef-like facies, the Tithonian continues round
thc Alps, the Carpathians, the Balkan Mountains to the
('.rucasus.Where best developed, for exampleat Stramberk in
('zcchoslovakia,it contains a rich and varied fauna including
rrrassivecompound corals(though the fossilsare more obvious

Figure 7.4 Urgonianlimestone

aalleyof RiaerHeory, Georgia,
formingescarpment,
USSR(DVA)

half a stageor so, and it is still a valid generalisationto say that

a massivelimestoneis developedover a very wide areatowards
the end of Early Cretaceoustimes.

TITHONIAN

LIMESTONES

Below the towering Urgohian cliffs of southern Europe, there

is commonly a second great escarpmentformed by a massive
limestoneat the top of the Jurassicsuccession.Again it runs from
northern Africa through Spain and up into the Alps. It forms,
for example,the cliffs of the Porte de Franceat Grenoble. It also
capsmany of the Jurabox-folds,where the Cretaceoussuccession
has been eroded away. Here it illustrates the point that it is the
deposition of carbonatethat is important and not the precise
nature of the sediment. Thus in the outer Alps, the Tithonian
is commonlyin the form of aCalpionella
limestone,with abundant
tintinnids and such otherwise-unusualforms as anrlnonitr-

'lrttn
I igurr L5 I'ithorriutrlinn'slonrcnpyittglurnssit'srrrlr'ssirur
nt tltt'
Gates', uthere
tltr l)uttulu'llotos lltrou'tlt llrc ('nrynlltittrs ltcltt,t,tuRonwria fun the right) and
Yljrrs/rtt,irt(otr lltt hlt) (l)VA)

TheNatureof the Stratigraphical

Record

in the collectionsfrom many years of quarrying than in the

quarries themselves).Whether or not these were in-situ reefs
is still a matter of dispute, but the dominance of the limestone
is everywhere obvious. It dominates, for example, the rapids
of the 'Iron Gates', where the Danube roars through the
Carpathiansbetween Romania and Yugoslavia (Figure 1.5).
The point has therefore now been made with three examples
that it is usually carbonatefaciesthat are so remarkablypersistent
in a lateralsense.It might be said that these representno more
than quiet, low-energy conditions on an extensivecontinental
shelf (or shelves). This does not fit, however, with the reef
limestonesand it certainly doesnot fit with the other faciesthat
show the same persistence. As we continue down the
stratigraphical column we find examples in other kinds of
sediment and in other kinds of quite high energy facies.
THE 'GERMANIC'TRIAS
Every student knows, or should know, the classictrinity of the
Germanic Triassic:
Keuper
Muschelkalk
Bunter
It is not generallyemphasisedin textbooks,however, how very
widespread thesesedimentsare. Thus a Briton can drive through
the Betic Cordillera in southern Spain and instantly recognise
the gypsiferous, red and green marls of the Keuper. In the
Celtiberic Mountains of easternSpain, the three-fold division of
the Trias is as clear as in Germany and the cross-bedded,red
'Bundsandstein' (for example,
along the Rio Cabriel, south-west
Teruel)
of
is exactly like the road-cuttings near Bridgnorth in the
English Midlands. \tVhat is more, it is also exactly like the cliff
sections in the Isker gorge, north of Sofia and elsewhere in
Bulgaria, at the other end of Europe (Figure 1.6).
The basal conglomeratein England is full of boulders of a
distinctive purple, 'liver-coloured'and white quartzitesthat have
been matched with the GrdsdeMay and the Gris Armoricainright
acrossthe other side of the EnglishChannelin Brittany(thotrgh

of Facies 9
The Persistence

Bulgaria(DVA)
north-zuest
at Belogradchik,
sandstone
I igure1.6 LowerTriassic

I rcgard with some scepticism the notion that the boulders here
travelled so far). Along the Rio Cabriel in Spain, it is the same/
lrrrt there the source quartzite outcrops immediately below. Near
Ilt'logradchik, in north-west Bulgaria, again the basal conglomerate
rs largely composed of exactly similar purple quartzite pebbles
(r t'sting on Permian breccias also like those of Midland England).
I vt'rr if one postulates continent-wide uplift to produce the
r onglomerate in such widely separated places, it is very difficult
to t'xplain why the source rock is also so remarkably similar from
.rlt' cfld of Europe to the other.
Agirin, we can go even farther afield. It is well known that,
.rP,lrt from its basalts, the Newark Supergroup of the eastern
rr',rboerrdof the United States is exactly like the Trias of northrvt,st lJurope, and both are now known to have been largely
.lr,P1rsiledin fault-controlled basins. The similarities are almost
'Building
Stones' of the basal
l.rrrghal'rle,even to the extent of the
like the
remarkably
being
KctrPcr near Birmingham, England,
'brownstone' houses of much of
s,rrrtlstonewhich provided the
,'ltl New York C-'ity.If we go to the High Atlas of Morocco, we
Irrrrlt'ven ckrser similirrities,with basic intrusions and extrusions
n itlritt tht fanriliar rccl sirlrcistone.
acrossthe Atlantic,
I lon't'r't r, n'lrt'n I tnakc tltt'st' colttp-r.tris()lts
'platc
tt'cttlnics'.Otrvitlusly
I r.rr),rlnr()stht.ar tttV rt'.trlt'rssaying:

of Facies 11
ThePersistence

10 TheNatureof the Stratigraphical

Record
if we closeup the ocean again,the resemblanceswould not be
so startling. V"ry well, but then let us go right down to the southwest corner of the United Statesand look at the Moenkopi and
associatedformations of Arizona. The glorious colours of the
Painted Desert are produced by the same sort of red and green
'marls' as we Europeanshave in our Keuper. The road cuttings
along Highway 40 in Arizona show red and green marls and thin
sandstones with layers of gypsum, all of which would be
perfectly at home along the banks of the River Severn (Figure
1.7). Similar sedimentswith evaporitesare seenin the coresof
salt-domesbelow the Cupido Limestone mentioned above in
north-eastMexico. \Atrhatis more, a recent stamp from Argentina
showed a red sandstone pinnacle in the depression of
Ischigualasto(the Valley of the Moon) which a visiting Chinese
immediately identified as Triassic.I have sinceseen red Upper
Triassicmudstones near Daye in southern China.

THE COAL MEASURES

Again continental drift may be held to account for the remarkable
similarity of the Upper Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) Coal

Measureson both sides of what one of the airlines now likes

to call the 'Atlantic River'. As a non-specialist,I found it quite
easy, with my scanty knowledge of the plants of the British Coal
Measures,to identify most of the diverse flora of the famous
Mazon Creek locality in Illinois. Perhapsif I had been more of
an expert the differenceswould have been more aPParent,but
experts always tend to obscure the obvious.
Certainly there are differences,especiallyin the better develop'
ment of marine sedimentsin the American Pennsylvanian,but
these in a way have obscured the resemblances;for work in
America has concentrated on the marine fossils, whereas in
Europe we have usually been forced to fall back on the nonrnarinefaunas and floras. It is now known, however, that as with
the plants, the non-marine bivalves of the American Mid-West
.rre very like those that extend from Ireland to Russia.
\A/hateverthe vertical and lateral changesin the Coal Measures,
we still have to accountfor a generalfaciesdevelopmentin Late
('arboniferous times that extends in essentiallythe same form
.rll the way from Texasto the Donetz coal basin, north of the
('aspian Sea in the USSR. This amounts to some 170" of
Iongitude, and closing up the Atlantic by a mere 40" does not
rt'ally help all that much in explaining this remarkable
Phenomenon. One looks in vain for a similar geographical
situation at the present day. The nearest approach I can think
ol' is around the deltas of south-eastAsia.

LOWER CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE

Figure7'7 Road-cutting
in
o'!,;uTr;;:"{'#;';riiKation'

Highznav
40 near

ln llritain, the greatlimestonedevelopmentof Early Carboniferous

'Mountain Limestone'
lMississippian)age used to be calledthe
lrt'causeit formed so much of our upland scenery.In the early
tlays of mapping in the United States,geologists(no doubt with
,r liurope-oriented education)had no difficulties in tracing the
t,rrniliar'CoalMeasures'and the 'Mountain Limestone'ofwestern
lrtrropefrom the Appalachiansright acrossthe Mid-West.
'fhe 'Carribre
Napol6on'in the Boulonnaisregion of northern
'Empire Statequarry'
l;r.lnce(Figure1.8) looks exactlylike the
irr lncliana(Figure1.9).Bothusecirculatingwiresto cut smooth
limt'stone,and whereasthe first
l.rt'r'sin the IrarlyCarbtlniferous

12

The Nature of the StratigraphicalRecord

of Facies L3
The Persistence

ErnP"f;f;;Quarry,
limestone,
I igure1.9 Mississippian

Figure 1.8 LowerCarbbniferous

limestone,CaruiireNapol1on,nearMarquise(Pas
de Calais),France(DVA)

was used to build the high monument to the Grande Arm6e that
overlooks Boulogne (With Napoleon at the top firmly turning his
back on England), the Indiana quarry produced the stone facings
for the Empire State Building in New York.
AII the physiographicalfeatures of the Mid-Western Mississippian are familiar to the man from the English Pennines or the
Mendips. The Mammoth Cave of Kentucky is nothing more than
a rather larger Americanisedversion of Wookey Hole in Somerset
or the Dan-yr-Ogof cavesin South Wales.
However, this is a casewhere the stratigraphical wood cannot
be seenfor the nomenclatural trees. Whereasthe British, in their
old-fashioned way, have usually stuck to the general term
'CarboniferousLimestone'
to cover all the varied carbonatefacies
of this age, the Americans-for very good local reasons-have

Indinna,
nearBloomington,

,rllowedthe proliferation of formation names to obscurethe unity

ol the whole.
So the Early Carboniferouswas again a time of very widespread
r.rrbonate deposition. Not only were limestones deposited in
l rrropeas far south as Cantabriaand right acrossthe Mid-West,
tlrt'y also went a lot further. Thus in Arizona, the Redwall
I irrrcstoneof this age forms the steepest cliff in the Grand
( ,rrlyon (Figure 1.10), and the name refers to the red staining
.l tlrc rock from the overlying Permo-Triassicred beds, just as
rrr the Avon Gorge at Bristol, the topmost Carboniferous
deposits.
I rrnt'stoneis reddenedby the overlying Permo-Triassic
right up in the Canadian Rockies,the Mississippian
"rnrilirrly,
l(rrrrcllcLimestoneforms an impressiveescarpment,for example
,rl',o\,('
the town of Banff in Alberta (Figure1.11).In Alaska, it
r.. llrr' l,isburneLimestone,with very similar characters.
\Vt. crrn also trace the early Carboniferouslimestones in the
'rlll)()sitedirectioninto Asia. Thus in Kashmir, there is a thick
Irrrrt,stone
of this age, very like its British counterpartand with
,r sirnilarfaunallist. The persistenceof fossilswill be the subject
rrl lht.ncxt chaptt'r,but a cautionaryntlte should perhapsbe
..orrrrtk'ti
ht'rt.,for thc firmiliaritytlf tht'ftlssilnamesmay merely

1.4 The Nature of the StratigraphicalRecord

The Persistence
of Facies 15

(Mississippian),
I tturc '1.11 RundleLimestone
of Mount
forming the escarpment
Rundle, aboaeBanff, Alberta, Canada(DVA)

in the
7.10 RedwailLimestone(Mississippian)
Figure
formi.ngthe.mostobztious.diff
Grand Canyon,as seenfrorn the Powell Memoial, Arizona, USA (DVA)

reflect the fact that they were studied by British palaeontologists.

I am told that it also occurs in Western Australia.
FRASNIAN REEFS
Still climbing down the column, the next great limestone
developmentwe meet is in the lower part of the Upper Devonian.
This is the Frasnian Stageand presentsus with what is, perhaps,
the most remarkable exampleof all. This was the heyday of reefs
built by rugose coralsand stromatoporoids'In some areasthey
started earlier (in the Givetian); elsewherethey lasted on into
the Famennian, but in the Frasnian Stage reefs and reef
limestones(in their broadestsense)were exPeriencingtheir finest

lr,'rrr. This is true, in a humble way, in the so-called type area

, 'l the Devonian in south-west England. It is true in the classic
r r,r,lsof Belgium, northern France and south-west Germany. It
r,, true in the beautiful karst country of Moravia in central
t zr,t'hoslovakia. It is also true in southern Morocco, in the
\rrrt'rican Mid-West and in the Canadian Rockies. where the
, ,r\'('r'r1ousrocks of these reefs form the most important oil
r,,st'rvoirs and the chief source of wealth in the province of
\ llrt'rta (Figure 1,.12).
lrr Western Australia too, magnificent reefs of this age are
,l,'r t'krped, perhaps the best in the world, notably in the splendid
,,r,rtions of the Windjana Gorge (Figure 1.13).

THE OLD RED SANDSTONE

llrr,other great facies of the Devonian is the continental red
'.,rntlstonc development which extends across the north of
Irrrol'rt.fronr lreland to the Russian Platform. It has also been
,llst ribt'clfronr t'astern Canada with fish remains very like those
ol lht'cl,rssic Scottisl'rst'ctions. It crrn also be seen below the

76

The Nature of the StratigraphicalRecord

1n

oa
l-\

TG'

ri=

"\s
Eq
*-n'

*s!
o-

$E
x'=

i5I

>.,

InEs
\..q
J,\
q-

oa

F*
st!

9.s

.S=

R<
i3

.R ^:
6bo

Figure1.12 UpperDeaonian
limestone
escarpment
with reet'
deoelopments
in thelower
(Frasnian)
(DVA)
part, Chinaryan's
Leap,nearCanmore,
Alberta,Canada
;.- s-

s2
Carboniferous Limestone mentioned earlier in Kashmir. There.
not only does the fish fauna closely resemble that of the Middle
Old Red Sandstone in Scotland, but the sediments themselves
are said to be exactly like the Thurso Flagstone Group of
Caithness. So it is not merely marine deposits that are so
incredibly persistent about the earth's surface. It is also found,
with similar fish fossils such as Bothriolepis, in Australia.

si gc
$v
'n.R

^a>
-\

*j

s'S
oa
E*

MID.SILURIAN LIMESTONES

HO
sr
m"\

The great time of carbonate deposition during the Silurian Period

was what we would call Wenlock time in Britain. The escarpment
of Wenlock Edge in Shropshire is formed by a massive limestone

tsS

\x

*,*

;i--:

of Facies 19
The Persistence

Record
18 TheNatureof theStratigraphical
(more thinly bedded below) of Mid Silurian age. Minireefs, or
'ballstones', are developed in most outcrops of this Wenlock
Limestone, though they nowhere approach the size of the
reefs discussedearlier. Similar reef limestones extend up to
Scandinavia,where they reach their finest development in the
island of Gotland out in the Baltic.
On a much grander scaleare the Niagaranlimestonesaround
the Great Lakes in North America, where the reefs reach
tremendous proportions, such as the splendid Thornton Reef
on the outskirts of Chicago.But in time terms, theselimestones
are very much of the sameage as those in Europe and, as I have
said elsewhere, 'the Niagara Falls are nothing more than the
NiagaraRiver falling over an escarpmentof Wenlock Limestone'.

ARENIG QUARTZITES
In the Ordovician of my corner of the world, the most remarkable
exampleof persistenceof faciesis that of the purple and white

...:

:lji;il , t i::.ll

(luartzites in the lower part of the System. Every British geology

student knows about the 'liver-coloured' quartzite pebbles which
,rrt' found in our Triassic conglomerates (referred to earlier) and
rvhich are said to have come all the way from the Ordovician
t lris Armoricsin and Grds de May of Brittany (Figure L.L4), even
tlrough this implies the transportation of pebbles up to 20 or 30cm
.li.rmeter for several hundred kilometres up to the English
\lirllands. Perhaps it is the distinctiveness of this particular
,rrr.rtomicalcolour that makes us forget the pure white quartzites
tlr,rt also occur at this level, even in our own Midlands (as the
of west Shropshire). But whether our
"tiperstones Quartzite
l',.1'lrlescome all the way from Brittany (as still seems possible)
{ ,r lrom hidden or eroded local sources is almost irrelevant, for
tlrl outstanding fact about these quartzites is their persistence.
lrorn England they go across to Brittany, where they are seen
rr s(,a cliffs and along into Normandy where they form, for
''\,unple, the great escarpment at Falaiseon which stands William
tlr,, (-onqueror's castle. From there they go right.down to
rrrrtherfl Spain. In Cantabria, the barrier they formed (as the
ll,rr rios Quartzite) played a major role for centuries in the military
lrr.,toryof the Iberian Peninsula. West from there they are seen
r rrr tlrc north coast in the gentler province of Galicia. They appear
,r1',,rin
on the south and east sides of the Spanish Meseta and
tlrr.rron way down into Africa. There are massive quartzites of
',rrrril.rrtype in the Ordovician of other parts of the world, from
Itrrll',,rriato the Canadian Rockies, but in my ignorance I will not
r r.,ks.rying that they are of exactly the same age. What is more,
tlr. rt'assernblageof continents/ as now envisaged, does not
'.rrrrPlifythe picture at all; it makes it far more complex.

THE BASAL CAMBRIAN QUARTZITE

Figure 1.14 Lower Ordoaician Grds armoricain t'ttrnringheadlandnear Carrrnrct

CrozottPttrinsuln.Brittnrrv, Itratrcc(DVA)

| \ r'n nr()r(rremarkable than the basal Ordovician quartzlte is the

,'rrr,tlr.rt is found, almost all over the world, at the bottom of
tlrr' ( .tnrbrian. Here dating becomes more and more
trsthe time spans become longer and longer. One
I'r, 'l,lt'rrraticirl
r'. tt'rrrPtt'clto get mixed up with arguments about the origins
,,t lilt' ,rrrcl thc l'rcginning of tht' main fossil record, of the
r r r v s t r , r ' i o u s ' 1 , i p . 1 1I in, t1t 1' r1v a l ' t l r a t w . t s t l t c c f t t v o u r e r da, n d o f

22 TheNatureof the Stratigraphical

Record
fauna and flora of great diversity, including ammonites which
date it quite precisely as early Kimmeridgian in age.
This is wonderful enough; but in the western part of the
southern FrenchJura, the Cerin Lithographic Stoneis of similarly
limited extent behind reefs, of similar lithology, of similar fauna
and flora and of similar age (Figure 1.15). Unfortunately no
Archaeopteryxhas yet been found there, but otherwise the
resemblance is startling.
Curiouserand curiouser, on the other side of the Pyreneesin
Spain, in the high escarpmentnear the attractivevillage of Ager,
north of Lerida, is yet a third lithographic limestone, again
restricted to a very small area and exactly like the other two in
lithology, fauna, flora and age (and even yielding a feather).
Other similar deposits of about the same age are said to occur

ThePersistence
of Facies 23
at Nusplingen in the Swabian Jura, at Talbrager in New South
Wales and in the central Congo.
The above are selected examples from among many, of
discontinuous distributions of similar synchronous deposits.
'fhere
are even more examplesof very thin units that persist over
fantastically large areas in particular sedimentary basins.
l.ithological units of 30m or less in the Permian of western
('anada, have been shown to persist over areas up to
470000km2. The thin basal member of the Trias, about a metre
thick, can be found all round the Alpine chain.
The occurrenceof banded ironstones around the world in late
I'recambrianrocks is well known. Particularly noteworthy is the
t,conomicallyimportant Animikie Basin, with the fabulous Mesabi,
Marquette and other ranges, at the west end of Lake Superior
in North America. Others of about the same age (i.e. about 2000
rrrillion years BP) are the TransvaalBasin in South Africa, the
llamersley Basin in WesternAustralia and the Dharwars Series
ol' India. All have the banded or varved iron formations that are
r'haracteristicof this episodein earth history. Even more remark,rlrlc, however, is the fact that individual bands can be traced
ovt r vast areas.Thus in the valuable Brockman Iron Formation
rrl the HamersleyBasin, bands2-3 centimetresthick are said to be
t orrelatableover an areaof some52000km2and even microscopic
r'.rrveswithin those bands can be traced over nearly 300km.
l.ike wartime bomb stories,every geologistseemsto have his
orvn favourite exampleto cap all others. Like a politician, I may
Ir,rve overstated my case to make my point. Those who are
l,rst'inatedby the minutiae of stratigraphicalcorrelationmay be
lrorrified at my generalisations.But I find myself left with what
rrr,rybe called the first main proposition of this book:
Al cartaintimesin earth history, particulartypesof sedimentary
rttlironment werepreaalentoaer aast areasof the earth's surface.
I lris may be calledthe 'Phenomenonof the Persistenceof Facies'.
REFERENCES

Figure 7.15 Cerin LithographicStone,Upperlurassic (Kimmeidgian) near Cerin

(Ain), Frenchlura (DVA)

'On someTurkishSediments',
,\pit.r,l). V. (1958).
Geol.
Mag.,Vol.95,
u3-u4.
I'l').
A trriefnote recording(amongother things)north-westEuropean
tvlrt C'halkon the southsideof the BlackSea.

|..J
@

HALORELLA ond

HALORELLOIDEA

A
i/0
4n
\S
/
t')

(le

*9,.\-

-/<\

t)
o Rccorded occurrcnce in Uppcr. Triossic
O Confirmed occurrencc in Upper Triossic

Y^b
v

Figure 2.1 (a) Distribution of the distinctiaebrachiopods

Halorella and its closerelationHalorelloidea in the late Triassic

P E R E G RI N E L L A

Figure 2.7 (b) Distribution o/ Peregrinella in the early Cretaceous

N)

The Nature of the StratigraphicalRecord

More Gaps than Record 45

andArchaean
marinesediments
Figure3.7 llnconformitybetwemUpperCretaceous
(DVA)
gneissof the BohemianMassif, nmr Kolin, Czechoslaaakia

In shallow-water areas, of course, the rates are higher.

Carbonatedeposition on the Great BahamaBank is said to have
averagedhalf a metre per thousand years, even though most
of the sediment is continuously swept into deeper water. The
average rate of accumulation of the 6000m of limestone under
the Bahamasis only 4 or 5cm Per thousand years. From this
disparity in rates, ProfessorNorman Newell deduced that these
Cretaceousand Tertiary limestonesrePresentno more than a
tenth of Cretaceous and Caenozoic times.
These sediments are only slightly compactible, but with others
(particularly muds) it must be realised that the thickness of new
sediment is not the same thing as the thickness of the rock that
results from it. Nevertheless we are always faced with a
contradiction between rates of deposition and the known
thickness of rock for a particular period of geologicaltime.
\Atrhenchallenged with this sort of argument, most practitioners
of the doctrine of continuous sedimentation then change their
'Oh no, we just mean without significant
ground and say:
breaks'. But what is significant? Obviously there are plenty of
unconformities where the break is obvious, such as the splendid
unconformity between the Upper Cretaceous and the
Precambrian of the Bohemian Massif shown in Figure 3.1..

PLIENSBACHIAN
KIMMERIDGIAN
OXFORDIAN
CALLOVIAN
BAJOCIAN

O'5m

AALE NIAN
T O A R CI A N

: ' I N E M U Rl A l . l

I'igure 3.2 ldcaliscd diagron ol lht cunlenscdsequences

presentedin solution hollows
'1965
irt lurnssic/irrrr'siulr'sof tutst Sicilv (from infonnatittn in Wendt,
antl'1971)

46

The Nature of the StratigraphicalRecord

(IsDre)
d'oisans
Figure3.3 rhick,weIIr,oo,lflT1l7f;'Xr;:t'67l;aboaeBourg
However, as our studies continue, more and more concealed
breaks becomeapparent, such as the remarkable situation in the
|urassic limestonesof western Sicily, where severalstagesare
packed away into thin solution pipes in what otherwise look like
unbroken limesto.nesequences(Figure 3.2).
'continuous'
Supposewe look at some of these areasof thick
sedimentation.Look at the spectacularcliffs of the Lower Jurassic
sediment of the Dauphinois trough above Bourg d'Oisans in the
French Alps (Figure 3.3). Hundreds of metres of shales and
mudstonesrepresentone small part (and I suspectone small part
of that small part) of the Jurassic.Here, if anlrwhere,one would
think we must have had continuous sedimentation. But what
are all those bedding planes?What is any bedding plane if it is
not a mini-unconformity? If we really had continuous sedimentation then there would surely be no bedding planes at all.
In fact the only time we seeunbedded sediments, apart from
comparatively small thicknessesof in-sifu reef development, we
can almost always find evidence of the destruction of the bedding
planes by recrystallisation or by the burrowing activity of
organisms. ProfessorGilbert Kelling has pointed out to me that,
in certain circumstances,bedding planes can be produced
'continuous
by textural and diagenetic differences within

MoreGapsthanRecord 47
sedimentation'. But I still maintain that most bedding planes
show evidenceof a pausein sedimentation, if not actual erosion.
Ideally, I suppose, we should look around for the thickest
available development of a particular unit if we are to find
anything approaching continuous sedimentation.Even then it
has been calculated, taking systems as a whole, that the
maximum rate of sedimentationwould have been something like
300cm in a thousand years,
In fact we have a paradoxhere in that the areasmost commonly
cited as those of continuous sedimentation without breaks, such
as the late Ordovician-early Silurian of the Southern Uplands
of Scotland and the Jurassicto early Oligocene of the Italian
Apennines, are also those of thinnest sedimentation. Clearly,
in such developmentsthere may be few, if any, erosionalbreaks,
but there must be immensenon-depositionalbreaks. And even
in deposits such as the flysch of northern Spain or the Polish
Carpathians,there is a great deal of evidenceof erosion by the
turbidity currents that laid down the sediment.
Having a sentimental attachment for them, I cannot resist
mentioning the Cotswold Hills of western England where the
formation still quaintly known by William Smith's original name
of the 'Inferior Oolite', reacheswhat is for us the tremendous
thickness of about 30m. These are the Aalenian and Bajocian
Stagesof the Middle Jurassicand compare favourably with the
equivalent on the Dorset coastof southern England, where the
limestonesof this age are condensedinto a mere 3.4m with two
obvious breaks (Figure 3.4). But it has long been known from
careful palaeontological studies that even in the thick
development in the Cotswolds, there is evidenceof two major
breaks and a period of folding in what otherwise was a very
peacefulperiod in British geologicalhistory. What is more, if we
krok farther afield, our magnificent 30 m dwindles into
insignificance.In Alaska we read that the Middle Bajocianalone
.tmounts to more than 1200m.
Again, the childlike wonder appears when we read for
t'xampleof more than 2000m of Kimmeridgian (Upper Jurassic)
irr New Zealand or more than 3000m of Frasnian (Lower part
of the Upper Devonian)in Arctic Canada,or more than 5000m
of Arenigian(Lower Ordovician)in westernIreland.\A/hatI think
of as a few steps akrng thc beachin the Isle of Wight suffices

qartaEagiE*qxnAiar:fiu
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AXIS

Uufi5ts.

BASIN

exF;*; 3

AXIS

GLOUCESTERSHIRE
BASIN

(a)

N.E.

MARKET WEIGHTON
AX IS

MIDLAND
BASIN

YORKSHIRE
BASIN

S.W
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oxtS

Moreton- in-Morsh
oxtS

Vole of Gloucesten

(b)

Monket Weighton

N.E.

OXIS

Leicestersh
ire

Yorkshire Bosin

Figure 3.5 Contrastedaersions.ofthe aariationin thicknessof the loznermost

lurassicdepositsin England:(a) idealisedtext-booktype
uariationalong the outcropshowing 'axes'and interaening'basins';(b) th'esameaariationexpreisedin actual total thicknesses

50

The Nature of the StratigraphicalRecord

More Gapsthan Record 51

S
CHARMOUTH

RADSTOCK

ffi*l

W!
.,,r1/ *

and
Figure3.6 Actualaaiatir" *r,fi:r;i;irf;'+ii:,nes between
theDorset
coast

I igure 3.7 Stratigraphicalbreakutith boredphosphaticnodulesin the 'stratotype'

rtl the Volgian(uppermostlurassic)at Gorodishchinear Ulyanoask,USSR (DVA)

basins of sedimentation in between (Figure 3.5a). If we put in

actual thicknesses, the 'axes' are not so obvious, but they are
still there (Figure 3.5b). However, if we look at just one part of
that story in detail, we find complications. Thus if we trace the
zones of the Lower Lias (as it is called) from the Dorset 'basin'
to the Mendip 'axis' , we find that 11 of the 12 zonesthin as they
ought (Figure3.6) with no signsof any breaksin the succession,
but the twelfth actually thickens markedly!
Such misbehaviour of stratain their most classicsectionsleads
me to have serious doubts (in fact, positive hatred) of the concept
of the 'stratotype' so much favoured by many workers on the
European continent. This idea of type section for a particular
stratigraphicaldivision will be discussedin a later chapter; all
I must sayhere is that no type sectionknown to me can possibly

pretend to be representativeof a whole unit of the stratigraphical

r'olumn, however small. Keeping, naturally enough, to the
Irrrassic(sinceit was the birthplace of stratigraphy), let us take
.rsan examplethe Volgian Stage.Previouslythis competedwith
the Tithonian (discussedin Chapter 1) for a place at the top of
the furassic.A lesserrival was the Portlandian(cum'Purbeckian')
,rl'England,to say nothing of the quaintly named Bononian and
llolonian of France.
'lhe 'stratotype'
of the Volgian Stageis at Gorodishchi, along
thc river from the birthplace of Lenin (Ulyanovsk, formerly
\imbirsk). It is an excellentsection,packedwith fossils,but with
vt.ry obviousbreaksmarkedby prominent bandsof phosphatic
nodules and borings (Figure 3.7). Clearly any break is a
tlisadvantagein a sectionthat setsout to typify a whole division

56

CatastrophicStratigraphy 57

TheNatureof the Stratigraphical

Record

':,,".?!
..''..
'1' .
J:

. -.:,?

:-*'-

lil..::

.1::;':^:.i::i.

;9

: , ., .

{) ' : ' . ' , ,i'''

'.d;gf;
. ,
,: ".. , ,e8d

I:igure 4.2 Exotic blocksin the argtlle scagliose Passo sec, Bracco in the Italian
Auennines

(DVA)
Eigure4.L LrnterCretaceous
flyschnearBielskoBialain thePolishCarpathians

the rest of the Oligocene alone reaches as much as 3000 m. This

is the Macigno Sandstone. The story is that slow sedimentation
in deep water produced first the Diaspri (Upper furassic
radiolarian cherts) and then the Scaglia or Scisti policromi
(Cretaceous to Oligocene vari-coloured shales). Then, at the top
of the Scaglia,there was a sudden change in sedimentation to
a brecciated limestone full of large foraminifera (the Brecciole
nummulitich e). This heralde d the incomp arably f aster deposition
'turbidites'.
of the Macigno
'catastrophic'
Even more
deposits were to follow in the
Apennines, for with the earth movements indicated by the
synorogenic sediments mentioned above, there came into Italy
from the west an allochthonous series of nappes. This was
'scaly
formerly known as the ArgiIIe scaglioseor
clays'. It was
thought to be nothing more than a shattered argillaceous deposit,
produced by repeated submarine landslipping and carrying with
it exotic blocks ranging in size from small fragments (Figure 4.2)
up to whole mountains. Some of these are unknown in the
autochthonous succession of the Italian mainland, for example
the great masses of serpentinite and associatedrocks scen near
the west coast. Their size diminishes as tlrt'y t{r't lttrlltt'r (l\/ay

I t.qltrt 1.,i

l ) i s l r i l t r t l i o t t r t l t l l r t l t l l r r l r r t t t so y l t i o l i t r s itt lltt ttortlr Alrynrritrcs(alfcr

,\ltrlrt. l\llil)

Record
58 TheNatureof the Stratigraphical
from their sourceareain the Tyrrhenian Sea(Figure4.3). More
recent work has demonstratedthat the allochthon is not quite
as confusedaswas formerly thought, and the term Argille scagliose
has been dropped in Italy (though it is still used in many other
parts of the world). The poeticname has been replacedby terms
'chaotic complex' and the pseudo-scientific
iuch as
'olistostromes'without really adding to our knowledge, but the
essentialpoint is that submarine landslipping is now thought
to be only part of the processrather than the whole. Modern
thought has reverted to earliernappe theoriesin which sizeable
slices of recognisablestratigraphy have been pushed forward
considerabledistancesfrom the south-west. At the same time
there has been extensive sliding, especiallyat the front of the
nappes. But rather than reducing the amount of such sliding,
modern ideas seem to have increased7t, fot olistostromesare
now recognisedin all parts of the succession,autochthonousas
well as allochthonous.
This examplewas worth discussingin more detail than most
type of 'catastrophic' deposit is now
becausetJneArgille scagliose
recognisedin many parts of the world, from California to Taiwan.
In Turkey, near the Chalk cliff mentioned at the beginning of
Chapter 1, there is a great jumble of Cretaceousblocks resting,
with a very irregular junction, on Eocenenummulitic marls. This
had been described as a thrust, but it is almost certainly a
submarinelandslip deposit like those in Italy. In fact, many years
ago I was rash enough to suggestthat the great Ankara m1lange
itself (humorously called by the locals tilrlil gilaec-a Turkish
type
version of Lancashirehotpot) might be an Argille scagliose
of deposit. I was duly slapped downby -y more knowledgeable
tectonic seniors, and tried to forget the brief publication in
question, but later work has now led met to suspectthat I might
have been right after all.
Certainly there are many smashed-up-lookingdeposits around
the world carrying huge exotic blocks far from their place of
origin. One of the most remarkableI have heard of is in the island
of Timor, where there is a deposit, known as Bobonaro Scaly
Clay, which extends for nearly 1000km of outcrop, is nearly
100km wide and is 2.5km thick. In fact, if its allegedoccurrence
on other islandsis correct,it extendsfor at least1600km. Figure
tt'itlr some
4.4 shows a rounded exoticpebble in this c-lt'1'xr5i1,

CatastrophicStratigraphy 59

I r,",

I tgrtrr1.1 l.tttlic rottttdnll,lotl' itt lltt lloltotnroScnlqClay, trcarBobonaro

in eastern
.ntttt: ttilr !ltt rtttttl,roi,irlitt,\tt srtlr tl lltt lnllottt of llrc ltlock(photogra\thkindly
r r. t ) . A r t r l l t t l - t ' l t n r l r s )
I t t t t i , i r l t l' rt rl yl ' 1 1 t l r : , t r[ 1

62

The Nature of the StratigraphicalRecord

CatastrophicStratigraphy
63
that certain sedimentsin the stratigraphicalrecord can be best
interpreted in terms of violent storms. By analogy with
'turbidites' he has coined the term 'tempestites' for graded beds
of shallow water sedimentsthat may have been churned up by
storms and allowed to settle again. They differ from turbidites
in their general environmental setting and in the relative paucity
of the basal sole marks that record the erosional passageof a
turbid current. Professor Kelling used the term first for
Carboniferousdepositson the Moroccan Meseta,but I have seen
the same sort of thing in Jurassic carbonateson the Polish
foreland and they have been describedfrom many other horizons
and areas,though not previously interpreted in this way. In fact
the literature is now full of storm deposits and my students are
finding them everywhere(without any pressurefrom me). One

Figure 4.5 Supposedstorm depositsin Upper lurassic near Imouzzer-des-lda-oua ilistinct storm
Tinane, westernHigh Atlas, Morocco;eachot' the bedsreptesents
episode,with blackcarbonatebelowand paler carbonateabooe(DVA)

(ltclow)algal
of oneof theaboueunits; blacklaminateddcposits
Figure4.6 Close-up
'cleaner'sedinuttt
(nbopc);
mits, possiblyrippedup andgradedin the
frontoll''511pr,
(l)VA)
thc coinis a dirham,2.4cm across

'tcnry,stitc'irr Louer
I igure 4.7 Sultpttsed
Carboniferous
limestonenearCanfranc
:lnciur
I
irrtlrc Slturishltyrun'cs;nnglilnrlilnckfragnrcntsareseenin a palegreymatix,
tlrr ulritr cnlcitrcrnckitrg
is rtslrtlr.lJlo llrt dcripedltlocks,zphichprobablyrepresent
olltr slnllow-u,nltrnlyl rlr'|osils-llrclrnnnnrris 29cm |oug(DVA)

66 TheNatureof the Stratigraphical

Record
Catskill delta, a flash-flood (itself an example of a modern
catastrophicevent) uncovered a whole forest of in-situ Devonian
trees up to 12m high.
By such means it is possible, within the Lancashire Coal
Measures for example, to demonstrate that very rapid
sedimentation alternated with very slow sedimentation and that
the former was responsiblefor the bulk of at least some parts
of the record.
If we turn to volcanic deposits,which can hardly be regarded
as exceptionalin earth history, we can find many examplesof
great thicknessesaccumulatingvery rapidly indeed. At Builth
in Central Wales, a complicatedhistory has been worked out
for one part of the Ordovician. First, spilitic lavas were extruded,
layer upon layer, and weathered to produce a staircase-like
scenery (or 'trap topography'). Their weathering gave rise to
sandy and pebbly deposits.Then a seriesof keratophyreswere
extruded on top of the spilites and weathered into rounded hills
with detrital pyritous sand banked up against them. Finally the
seaencroachedon this topography producing steepcliffs, inlets,
seastacksand sandy or shingly beachdeposits. A reconstruction
of the supposed scenery of this time is given in Figure 4.8 (it
will be noted that the view is looking westwards and that the
shadows are therefore coming from the north, evidently proving
that the British Isles were then in the southern hemisphere!).
But the most surprising fact about this is that all these events
took place during the deposition of a single graptolite zone.
Admittedly Ordovician graptolite zones must have lasted much
longer than the ammonite zones of the Mesozoic, but nevertheless the time scale is still surprising.
The great problem of uniformitarianism was always the amount
of time needed to explain what was known to have happened
in the history of the earth (including the evolution of all its
species)if one could only postulate present processes.James
Hutton recognised this right from the start with his famous
aphorism 'no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end'.
CharlesLyell was a student of William Buckland who taught that
'Geology
is the efficient auxiliaryand handmaid of religion' and
who saw evidenceeverywhere of 'direct intervention by a divine
creator', of a 'creative power transcendingthe operirtion of
known lawsof nature'.Lyell insteadwantedan t'nrPirir',rl
tlrt'ory

Stratigraphy 67
Catastrophic

times,near
in earlyOrdoaician
scenery
Figure4.8 Reconstruction
of thesupposed
of Sir WilliamPugh
Builth,Wales(fromlonesandPugh,1949,by kindpermission
Societyof London)
and the Geological
founded on observation and practical experience that did not
depend on any preconceived ideas from the Bible or elsewhere
and which provided a methodology-a means of explaining
geological phenomena.
'Methodological
uniformitarianism', as it is sometimes called,
makes the simple assumption (as in all other sciences) of the in'Substantive
uniformitarianism' on the
variance of natural laws.
other hand (towards which Lyell also inclined)presumes uniform
rates or conditions. It is this second concept which has caused all
the trouble, certainly (for example) in view of what we now know
about the very different world of early Precambrian times. But
what chiefly concerns me here is simply the amount of time
needed for what we know to have happened in the geological past
'normal
if we can only postulate
processes'. Thus the other great
tun iformitarian of the last century-Charles Darwin-estimated
verstlylonger periods than are accepted today. For example, he
postulated 300 million years since the Cretaceous to allow for
thc scooping out of thc Wealden anticline in south-eastEngland.
t ritrnrphec'lbecauseit provided a general
U rrifornrit.rri.rrrisnr
tht.ory tltat rr'.ls.rt ottt't' logit'al atrcl set'rnirrgly'scicntific'.

74

The Nature of the StratigraphicalRecord

Figure 5.1 Laminatedsedimentbeingerodedat the side of a creekin the Wash,

easternEngland(DVA)

recently: 'The shelf off easternUnited Statesis covered almost

entirely with relict nearshore sands of the (Pleistocene)
transgression.'
Even where sediment is recorded, it is frequently in the form of
sand wavesthat move from placeto place and do not accumulate.
Most of the sediment in fact seems to be accumulating close
inshore and very little getsto the outer shelf or the deeps. It has
been calculatedthat there has been an averageof about 9m of
deposition closeinshore during the last 5000years. Coupled with
this, however, we have to rememberthe huge concentrationof
such sediment in deltas such as that of the Mississippi, where
it has been accumulatingat a fantasticrate (perhaps3000m in the
sameperiod of time). Similarly, around the mouth of the Orinoco
in Venezuela, the area of rapid sediment accumulation is
remarkablylimited. Beyond the shelf, accumulationseemsto be
concentratedin a comparatively few deep-water basins. All this,
of course, is during a time of exaggeratedrelief following the
Pleistoceneglaciation.It is for thesereasonsthat sedimentologists
have been forced to work to death the few modern examples
they have (such as the poor old BahamasBanks)for analogies
with ancient sedimentation.

Catastrophic
Uniformitarianism75
Years ago, Arthur Holmes made an interesting calculation
dividing the present area of sea-floorby the total amount of
sediment being brought down annually by all the rivers of
the world. He estimated 8xl-0etonnes transported annually
to the sea,which works out at 0.025kg per squaremetre of the
sea-floor.If the averagedensity of the sediment is 2000kg/m3,
the averagerate works out at about 1cm per thousand years.
This is even lessthan someof the rates mentioned in Chapter 3.
It seemsto me, from a number of recent papers (and from
common sense)that the rare event is becomingmore and more
recognised as an important agent of recent sedimentation.
Papershave been written on 'the significanceof the rare event in
geology' and one must never forget the significance of the
old truism that given time, the rare event becomesa probability
and given enough time, it becomesa certainty. We certainly
have enough time in geology. A study of the 1961hurricane
'CarLa'and the 1963hurricane 'Cindy' in the southern United
States showed that they had considerably modified both the
form of the affectedcoastlineand the distribution of sediments
there. The suggestionwas that just as the energy of electrons
is discharged in discrete amounts, or quanta, so energy is
expended in near-shoresedimentary environments within short
time intervals that are separatedby long periods of relative
calm. In other words, the changesdo not take place gradually
but as sporadic bursts, as a series of minor catastrophes.
It has been calculatedthat, in the Gulf of Mexico, there is
a 95o/oprobability that a hurricane will pass over a particular
point on the coast at least once in 3000years. The maximum
amount of sediment likely to be deposited over that period
along the coast generally is about 30cm and we know that
hurricanes will certainly rearrangethat amount of material. In
other words, the rare hurricane is likely to be the main agent
recorded in the stratigraphicalcolumn of certain parts of the
world, even in our present climatic set-up.
Similarly, it has been shown that tsunamis, or 'tidal waves'
trsthey were for a long time mis-named,have an immense effect
on shorelines, both in erosion and in the shifting of great
quantitiesof sediment.To quote a recentauthor on the subject:
'. . . the actirlnof tsunamisis short and extremelyviolent . . .'.
It has bct'n suggt.stt'cltlr.rt setr-floorsediments as deep as

Record
78 TheNatureof the Stratigraphical
However, I would not wish it to be thought that this was
necessarilya unique example. Even in the same region of the
western United States there was the catastrophicbreaking of
the morainic dam of 'Lake Bonneville' (ancestorof the Great
Salt Lake) about 30 000years ago. This flooded the wide Snake
River Plateau in Idaho with similar effects. Around the world
generally one finds similar examples, albeit on less than an
American scale, and there are probably many more not yet
known in the world's literature. One reads of 52m of debris
being depositedin an hour as the result of a cloud-burst. One
sees huge deposits, such as the high cliffs of gravel around
Embrun in the French Alps, and not far away, the heap of great
boulders at Claps de Luc, where half a mountain fell into the
valley of the Dr6me one wet afternoon inL442 (Figure5.2). The
largest landslide of all in the Alps, that of Flims in Switzerland,
is calculatedto have brought down a mass of more than 1,2km3
of material. We know, therefore, that the frequency of landslides
is quite enough to account for a major part of the wearing down
of new mountain chains.
Particularly disastrous, but not uncommon, have been the
effectsof landslips and rock-fallsinto bodies of water. In L958,

t
landslipat Claps de Luc (Driurrr) itr lltt I'rt:ttcl
Figure 5.2 Fifteenth-century
Altts(DVA)

Catastrophic
Uniformitarianism79
40 million cubic meters of rock fell into Lituya Bay on the coast
of Alaska, producing a great surge which destroyed a forest
and reached more than 500m up the mountainside on the far
side of the bay. In1792, a similar rock-fallinto ShimbaraBay,
on the |apaneseisland of Kyushu, causedthree surges which
drowned 15000 people. The most spectacularknown to me
in Europe were the great rock-falls that occurred from the
sheer face of Ramnefjell (Raven Mountain) into Loenfjord in
central Norway in 1905and1936, producing waves that wiped
out local communities and carried a steamer a considerable
distanceinland.
Most countries of the world have their records of great natural
catastropheswhich changed the local face of the earth. One
thinks of the change in the course of the Hwang-ho River
in China, which in less than 80 years moved its mouth some
400km from way to the south of Shantung on the Yellow
Sea up nearly to Tientsin on the Gulf of Pohai. The Brazos
River in Texas is said to change its course abruptly once every
10 years or so.
Alec Smith has told me of his studies on the bottom sediment
of Lake Windermere in north-west England. The rush of visitors
to the area since the popular romanticism of the 'Lakeland
poets' has led to major changes in the micro-organismsand
the deposition of their remains, due largely to the effects of
human effluent. He has therefore aptly calledthe higher layers
the 'post-Wordsworthian'.This shows how rapidly a new fauna
and/or flora can migrate into an area and change the record
albeit on a very small scale.
Volcaniceffectshave been even more sudden and disastrous,
ranging from the explosion of the island of Krakatoa, between
java and Sumatra, in 1883to the even more catastrophiceruption
of Santorini (or Thira) in the Aegaean about 1470 BC. This
eruption, or series of eruptions, which resulted in the huge
collapsed caldera in the sea beside the present island, must
have been the greatestcatastropheever witnessedby man and
may well have been heard as far away as Britain. The whole
cruption probably lastedonly about 100days, but was probably
indirectlyresponsiblefor the destructionof the Minoan civilisation on Crete,nearly l(X)kmaway. This seemedto fit in well
with I)l.rto's.'rccour'rl
of tht' t.ntl of Atlirntis.The correlation

Record
80 TheNatureof the Stratigraphical
of the eruption and the destructionwas long disputed, but now
seemsto be confirmed. Neverthelessvolcanicbombs were hurled
this distance comPared with a mere 40km from the more
publicised Krakatoa eruption. It is, however, still very easy
io pick up tufa from the latter on the coast of eastern Africa,
to which-it took 6 months to float acrossthe Indian Ocean'
one of the most spectacularsightsever seenby man must have
been the mile-higi (1.6km) fiery cascadewhen a lava flow
poured into the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Earlier lava flows,
Lefore the coming of man, date back a million years, but since
that time the Colorado River has only cut down about 15m'
The canyon itself, more than \lzkm deep, cannot have started
more than 1,0million years ago, so here too there must have
been some very rapid erosion at some time.
So we come bacl again and again to the notion of the rare
catastrophichappenings playing a major role in the working
out of the stratigraphic record as we find it today. Examples
of this sort are in direct contrast to what has been, in effect,
the subconsciousattitude of most geologistsfor the last 100 or
more years.The opposing attitude was perhapsbe-stexpressed
by the great Frenih naturalist, the Comte de Buffon, back in
the eighteenthcentury.In 1781,he wrote:
We ought not to be affected by causes which seldom act, and whose
action i6 always sudden and vioient. Thesehave no placein the ordinary
course of naiure. But operations uniformly repeated, motions- which
succeedone another without interruption, are the causeswhich alone
ought to be the foundation of our reasoning.

This may be a reasonable phitosophical argument when

we are thinking in brief human terms, but the stratigraphical
record and I boih seemto prefer the doctrine of Thomas Osbert
'One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age
Mordaunt:
without a name.'
The hurricane, the flood or the tsunami may do more in
an hour or a day than the ordinary Processesof nature has
achievedin a thousand years. Given all the millennia we have
to play with in the stratigraphicalrecord, we can expect our
perlodic catastrophesto do all the work we want of them'
PeterGretenerhas emphasisedthe need to distinguishbetween
and I wottltl likt'to adapt
anddiscontinuous
continuous
Processes

Catastrophic
Uniformitaianism 81
his list of examples as follows, ranging from biological to
astronomicalprocesses:
Continuous
Phyletic gradualism
Erosion by a meandering river
Compaction of sediments
Reef growth
Subsidence
Diapirism
Uplift
Pelagicdeposition
Heat flow
Sea-floorspreading
Magnetic field
Cosmic rays

Discontinuous
Punctuated equilibria
Flash flood
Internal collapse of sediments
Storm beach
Landslip
Faulting
Earthquake
Turbidity currents
Intrusions
Continental collision
Magnetic reversal
Meteoritic impact

So the contrasting processesrange through every aspectof what

we call geology. Gretenerwent on to suggesta scale,basedon
a 95o/oprobability of a particular event happening, as follows:

Regular events
Common events
Ilecurrent events
()ccasionalevents
I{are events

Peiodicity in years
102,i.e. once in a human lifetime
L03,i.e. once in human history
1,06.i.e. once in the smallest
stratigraphical unit
L08,i.b. once in an era
10e.i.e. once in the historv of the earth

Of course it does not matter what we call them, but this

rnerely illustrates how the rare event merges into the regular.
We must not dismiss the occasionaland rare events as wild
speculation;statisticallythey must occur sooneror later, just as
sooner or later that chimpartzeewill type Hamlet.All the time
rvc must ask ourselves: 'Is the Present a long enough key to
lx.netratethe deep lock of the Past?'
It is particularly instructive to look at the stratigraphical
rt't'ord of our kindred scienceof archaeology.This is close
I'lr()ughto us in tinrt' to rltralifyfrlr the 'present'end of the
/()p(,rations
urrifornrit,rri.rrr
lJtrflirrr's
c'ltrtrirrt..
uniformlyrepeated',

82 TheNatureof the Stratigraphical

Record
the operations, 'which succeedone another without intemrption',
these are the ploughing, sowing and reaping, the building
and decay of habitations, the births, marriages and deaths
of human history. But they make very little showing in the
archaeologicalrecord. It is the floods and the fires, the battles
and the bombardments, the eruptions and the earthquakes
which have preserved so much of the human story. When
the palaceis allowed to decay and the stones are taken away
to build the shanty town, then the frescoesand the tesselated
pavements, the statues and the beautiful pottery are all lost.
It is only when the barbarian reduces the palace to a heap
of stones in the desert and slaughters all the inhabitants,
that the record of art and thought and everyday life is preserved for us. Think of that most perfect of all archaeological
records-the city of Pompeii-where we have everything
preserved from the statue in the elegant garden to the beans
in the cooking pot, from the political graffiti on the walls to
the obscenepaintings in the brothel. These were all preserved
by a single, brief catastrophe-the eruption of Vesuvius on the
24 August AD 79.
One interesting geological effect of the Vesuvius eruption
nineteen hundred years ago was on the famous pillars o] the
so-called 'Temple of Serapis' atPozzuoli on the opposite side of
the Bay of Naples (Figure5.3). Thesehave long been associated
with the archpriest of uniformitarianism, Charles Lyell, who
used them as the frontispiece of his great proselytising work,
Principlesof Geology.The pillars show borings made by marine
organisms several metres above the present highest sea-level
and so provide undeniable evidence of marine invasions and
retreatswithin historic times. Thesechangeshave been related
to volcanic activity in this eruptive neighbourhood. They rose
sharply, for example, during the eruption of Monte Nuevo
in 1538.In fact what strikes me most forcibly about Lyell's pillars
is not their evidence of placid uniformitarianism but rather of
episodic'catastrophism'.The borings are concentratedhigh on
the pillars but are remarkably lacking on the masonry lower
down. A gradual advanceor retreat of the seafrom its highest
point would surely have produced pock marks all the way down
to present sea-level.Instead they show to my prejudiced eyes
that the sea changeswere very rapid indeed.

CatastrophicUniformitarianism 83

I igure 5.3 Lyell's pillars at PozzuolinearNaplesshozaingboringsmadeby maine

organismsduring a marineinaasionin post-Romantimes (DVA)

lkrwever, I would not for one moment deny the continuity

,rrrcithe gradualnessof the processeswhich are changing the
t,arth. But we must always distinguish between the nature
oi the processand the nature of the record. I do not deny
rrrriformitarianism
in its true sense,that is to say,of interpreting
tlrt'p:rst by means of the pr()cesses
that we see going on at

88

The Processof Sedimentation 89

The Nature of the StratigraphicalRecord

I NT E R P R E T A T I O N 1
kr
J

tr
tf
J

U
U

F
J

Ld

I NT E RP R E T A TI O N 2
t!
-J

'TwinButtes'in
(early
Figure6.7 Marada
Formation
Miocene)
formingoneofthe
theSirteBasinof eastern
Libya,with an abandoned
drill-bitsymbolically
in the
(DVA)
foreground
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)

an offshore sandbank facies;

a lagoonal'facies;
an intertidal or deltaic facies;
a fluviatile facies; and
an estuarine facies cutting acrossthe other four.

The lagoonal facieshas been disputed and the estuarine facies

is complicatedin various ways and confusesthe issue, so let us
just considerthree of these facies:the offshore, the deltaic and
the fluviatile. All three are very well represented as sediments,
shelly fossilsand trace-fossils.There is no dispute about this side
of the interpretation, nor with the conclusion that the offshore
deposits are mainly developed to the north and the fluviatile
(continental) deposits to the south.
There is disagreement,however, whether or not they can be
interpreted as lateral time equivalents of one another. This is
expresseddiagrammaticallyin Figure 6.2. In Interpretation 1 (top)
we have the 'gentle rain from heaven' approach,with all three

)
J

iz

0E

L,J

l.<

b>

Figure 6.2 Two possibleinterpretationsof the relationshipsbetueenthe dit'ferent

faciesof the Marada Formation, in the Miocene of the Sirte Basin of eastern
Libya

basic environments being preserved simultaneously. In

Interpretation 2 (bottom) we have the 'moving finger writes'
approach, which was basicallythe interpretation put forward by
the palaeontologist who followed on in this particular research
project. He found a certain amount of fossil evidence that the
time planes were not parallel with the lithological boundaries
and he cameto the generalconclusion that the faciesto the north
are in the main younger than those to the south. Clearly it is
difficult to be dogmatic about faunas of this age, when such
short time-spans are involved, and it is also difficult to be
sure that particular species are more time-controlled than
facies-controlled.
What is more, it is probably utterly unfair to this particular
study to oversimplifyit in the way shown in Figure 5.2, which

100 TheNatureof the Stratigraphical

Record
Locality B. In such a case(which must be, theoreticallyat least,
very common), 'event stratigraphy, is more accurate, in a
chronologicalsense,than either lithostratigraphy (in the usual
sense)or biostratigraphy.
over a period of many years I had a successionof research
students working on the Eocenestrata of the Isle of wight, off
the south coast of England. No doubt if their theses eve-ntually

Marxist Stratigraphyand the GoldenSpike 101

appear they will contradict my oversimplified ideas on the matter,
'event
but this seems to me an ideal place to demonstrate
stratigraphy'. Cyclic sedimentation has long been recognised
here, with the succession at the east end of the island largely
marine, and that at the west end largely continental. Correlation
by fossils is, for the most part, impossible. Correlation by
lithology always leads one into an impossible tangle.
There are basically three kinds of sediment involved (Figure7.2):
(i) cross-bedded yellow and buff sands;
(ii) laminated beds of alternating layers of clay (or lignite) and
sand; and
(iii) glauconitic or sandy clays with marine fossils.

o
t
t:

ffi.ffi'

sANDS
"ror.-BEDDED

r-nrrrrrr'TATED
BEDS

L_-,-:l

nl
r r^niilTr^
^r
F_-_- 1 TTLAUUUt\t I tU ULAyS

Figure 7.2 Cyclic sedimentationand 'eaent' correlation in tht' I:.ocrtttol ltrt lslc of
Wight, southern EnglanLl

If one tries to correlate one of these (say the laminated beds)

from one end of the island to the other, one finds that there are
just too many units at the east end. The paradoxical solution,
it seems to me, is to correlate the unlike lithologies as shown
in Figure 7.2. The glauconitic clays at the east end should
therefore be equated with the laminated beds at the west end.
'marineIt may be expressed as a correlation of the degrees of
ness'. We are then correlating equivalent points on the cycle.
Anyway, it seems to work! This has, of course, been done before
elsewhere, but the principle is not, I believe, sufficiently
appreciated.
Undoubtedly, comparatively sudden and very widespread
events, such as major marine transgressions, did occur at various
times during the earth's history. The most famous of these is
the Cenomanian transgression, exemplified by Figure 3.L, where
Late Cretaceous sediments rest, with marked unconformity, on
the Precambrian rocks of the Bohemian Massif. To call it the
'Cenomanian
transgression' is something of an oversimplification, for it is often Albian or Turonian in age, but a major
transgression at about the beginning of Late Cretaceous times
seems to have occurred almost all over the world. It presumably
represents an epoch of geomorphological maturity and plate
stability.
Litholtlgical continuity or marine transgressionsor orogenic
prhtrsesor irny other physical phenomennn, must always be
nreirsurccl(in tlrc irtrsenceof arrything better) against the scale

136 TheNatureof the Stratigraphical

Record
down beneath the rising Alpine mountains. This would seem
to contradict, however, the notion of major transgressionsbeing
the much-delayedafter-effectsof an orogeny.
The remarkable stability of northern Europe and eastern
North America after this mid Cretaceousspasm is surely clear
evidence of the episodic nature of some of the plate movements. The persistence of the white chalk facies outside the
new mountain belts must clearly indicate a long period when
the Eurasian and American plates were not being affected by
any major continental collisions. It still remains difficult to
explain the Gingin Chalk of farawayAustralia, though one might
guess that this is part of the same phenomenon that produced
the almost world-wide 'Cenomaniantransgression'.But we must
not forget the great flysch troughs which were developed in
Alpine Europe through much of Cretaceoustime and which in
many casescontinued on into the Tertiary.
By this time, the southern part of the north Atlantic was
presumably wide open, and I strongly suspect a crack going
up as far as east Greenland. I have earlier suggested that
the presenceof Tethyan elements (of Late Jurassicand Early
Cretaceousage) in Greenland might be explained in terms
of an early Gulf Stream sweeping its way into an incipient
North Atlantic. So.might also the presence of other Mediterranean genera and species in the more westerly outcrops
of Britain.
The main opening of the North Atlantic, however, was
evidently a Tertiary affair. The volcanic history of that event
does not need restatement here, but the complexity of the
stratal history makes this part of the column both the most
confusing and the most controversial of all. The widespread
regression at the end of Cretaceoustimes may be related to
three major plate phenomena:
(i) the Laramide orogeny along the western edge of the
American plate,
(ii) the opening of the northern part of the North Atlantic, and
(iii) the further grinding together of the African and Eurasian
plates to produce the early Tertiary Pyreneeanfolding
of Cantabria, the Pyrenees and Provence in southwest Europe.

TheNatureof the Control 137

New east-west fold mountains immediately began to be
destroyed again, producing mountains of conglomeratesuch as
the fantastic shapesof Montserrat, near Barcelona(Figure 8.3)
which is remarkable even in a country of conglomerateslike
Spain. The Atlas folding in north-west Africa conforms remarkably with that of the Pyrenees,which provide probably the best
evidence we have in Europe of the coincidence of Variscan and
Alpine fold belts.
The Variscanmassifsof Europe, such as the Spanish Meseta,
the Massif Central of France,the Eifel of Germany, the Bohemian
Massif of Czechoslovakiaand the Rhodope Massif of Bulgaria
are characterised by roughly north-south tensional grabens
filled with Tertia! non-marine sediments. They also display
all the featuresof a volcanicity that lasted late enough to terrify
Palaeolithicman and perhaps to provide him with his fire. Some
of the craters look so fresh that one almost expects the rocks
still to be warm. But this volcanicity also testifies to the great
tensional stresses that were still affecting Europe, producing
vast fissure eruptions and long straight lines of volcanic cones,
such as the Chaine de Puys near Clermont Ferrand (Figure8.4)
and the puy-like volcanoesin the 'CzechAuvergne' on the west
side of the Bohemian Massif (Figure 8.5).

Figurc 8,3

Mtnrtserrat, near Barcelona, Spain; a strangehl shapcd mttuntain

of Mioctttc cotrglonreratc(DVA)

138

The Nature of the StratigraphicalRecord

oo

Figures'5Puv-tike*"ff
::#',f U:#,Yf#,{:,7&,"^Karlsbad)ontheBohemian

O
r-"
9prvo"
v
Nugere

oo
OaPuy

The Nature of the Control 139

de Pariou

o._/
Puy de Dome

Figure 8,4 k ChatnedesPuys, a line of late

Caenozoicaolcanoesalong a fracture line in
the Auaergne,seenfrom the top of the Puy de
D6me,near ClermontFerrand,France(DVA)

The main spasm of the Alpine orogeny came in Oligocene

and early Miocene times, with the African plate grinding against
Europe and the alpine chains spreading out to the north and
south like an opening fan. So much is now known of the Alpine
fold belts, the times and forms of their movements, and so
much is now being deduced about the relationship of all this
to the theories of plate tectonics, that I marvel at my audacity
in saying anything at all at this stage. Clearly it is more than
just a picture of two continent-carryingplates coming together.
As with every theory that seems at first to have an obvious
answer to every problem, the beautifully simple picture is

becoming smudged; the two obvious large plates of Africa

and Europe are being confused by the 'microplates' of the
eastern Mediterranean. The most apparent anomaly is that
the Mediterranean, although it has in Cyprus something
comparableto a mid-oceanicridge, does not have the magnetic
'striping', with reversals,of other oceans.The easternMediterranean is still evidently an active tectonic area of colliding
plates, with Crete and adjacentridges as part of a small island
arc parallel to the Hellenic trench.
The western Mediterranean, however, is quite different,
having alpine folds to the south as well as to the north. Here,
perhaps, all the ocean-floormaterial has been carried up into
the mountains. Flysch-bearingtroughs and ophiolites are major
constituents of the allochthonous elementsin the Alpine chains,
including those in the Apennines discussedearlier.
A similar belt of Mesozoic ophiolites has been traced
from the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey, just into
northern Syria and Iraq and then on through Iran to Oman.
These appear to relate to an earlier phase of ocean spreading
during Late Triassic times, and were carried to their present
positions in nappes formed during the Cretaceous, as in
easternEunlpe.