Geological
Reserach portfolio.
Mike
Horne FGS
Here is a list of my
geological research interests:
Chalk stratigraphy
- started 1984.
- Problems
with Chalk stratigraphy [lecture to Hull Geological Society December 1989]
- The Chalk
of the Yorkshire Wolds [talk to Yorkshire Geological Society, June 1991]
Summary of some of it -
By measuring bed thicknesses in quarries
and coastal cliffs members of the Hull Geological Centenary Project were able
to construct a lithostratigraphy of just over 400 metres in total (allowing
for two gaps in the sequence). This was prepared for display at the Society's
Cenetenary Meeting in 1988, but not displayed.
- Flints and marl bands are traceable
across the region.
- There are few erosion surfaces
or hardgrounds in the Yorkshire Chalk - does this idicate deposition in deeper
water than in southern Britain?
- There is still work to be done
on the biostratigraphy which is still poorly defined and subjective.
- The colour bands (e.g. Lower and
Upper Pink Bands and the Yellow Band) and the ending of flint deposition are
probably diachronous events.
- There is regional variation in
the thickness of the chalk deposited in the Albian, Cenomanian and Santonian
(though there is little variation in the Turonian) - perhaps due to downfaulting
to the north of the Market Weighton Axis.
Chalk Biostratigraphy -
- Three specimens of Discoscaphites
binodosus have been found recently on the wave cut platform between Sewerby
Steps and Sewerby 'Buried Cliff' - evidence of new first appearance for the
zonal fossil, about 10 metres below previous records.
- There is an overlap of zonal fossils
Inoceramus lingua and Marsupites near Danes Dyke.
- There is an overlap of zonal fossils
Marsupites and Unintacrinus.
- The 'rafts' of Holderness are
associated with black flints, Belenmitella mucronata and Late Campanian/Early
Maastrichtian formainifera.
Chalk Micropalaeontology
- started 1984.
Summary
of some of it -
- Microfossils can be extracted
from the marls bands of the Yorkshire Chalk.
- Ostracods are rare in the Yorkshire
Chalk except in the Red Chalk Formation and the Khaki Marl of the Black Band
Member.
- Agglutinated foraminifera from
the Albian and Cenomanian are generally composed of coarser sediment grains
than the ones in younger deposits - it is as if they are coated in caster
sugar rather than icing sugar.
- Fish teeth and scales are common
in the Black Band Member.
- The majority of the flattened
foraminifera in the Black shales of the Black Band Member are crushed Hedbergellids
- the crushing makes them look as if they have a keel.
- The 'pretty' forams (e.g. double
keeled planktonics, Frondicularia, Bolivinoides) which are readily
useful for zoning are rare in the Yorkshire Chalk, though Stensioina is
quite common. The pretty forams are present in the younger chalk found in
Norfolk and the 'rafts' of Holderness.
- Does the scarcity of keeled planktonic
forams indicate shallower water?
Chalk geochemistry
- lecture to
the Yorkshire Geological Society 1995.
Suumary -
- The marl bands contain between
10 and 60 percent of non-carbonate material - mostly clay.
- Major elements analysis shows
no major differences - except that samples collected from the coast have higher
sodium levels!
- There is regional consistency
in the geochemistry of the marl bands.
- Some marl samples contain higher
levels of zirconium, niobium and yttrium - is this an indicator of an origin
in volcanic ash falls? - these marls are - Barton Marls numbers 1, 2 and 4,
Melton Ross Marl, North Ormsby Marl, Lower and Upper Deepdale Marls, Ulceby
Marl, Kiplingcotes Marls numbers 1 and 2 and Rowley Marl number 1.
- These samples are from the flinty
part of the Yorkshire Chalk - is there some connection between the volcanism
and the formation of flints?
- Some samples contained higher
levels of copper - is this an indicator of anoxia or condensation? These are
the Basal Marl, the Grey Bed, the black shales of the Black Band Member and
the Middleton Marl.
The 'Black Band
Member': Cenomanian-Turonian extinction event.
The distribution
of glacial erratics in East Yorkshire - started 1987.
The Basement
Till looks more like the Anglian Tills of Norfolk.
Is there
a relationship between the erratics found in Norfolk and those of the Basement
Till and found on the Yorkshire Wolds?
The erratics
came from Scandinavia, the Lake District, Scotland, Northern Germany, the North
Sea and north-east England. The glaciers of the Devensian did not cross the
North Sea, so Scandinavian erratics in the Holderness Tills must be recycled
from an earlier glaciation. This means that the Lake District and Scottish erratics
are probably recycled also.
Newbald Quarry
and area - started 1984.
- Jurassic lithostratigraphy
and palaeoecology.
- comparison with
the Bajocian rocks of Somerset.
- palaeo-karst
structures seen in 2002 (ongoing study).
- mapping the area
around Newbald with evening-class students.
Selwicks Bay.
- litho- and biostratigraphy
- ammonite found
in 2000
- Channel structures
in the Chalk
Quaternary
deposits of Flamborough - started 2002.
- On the north coast there is evidence
of the infilling a dip slopes in the bays.
- the sequence at Sewerby is not
exactly the sames as at Danes Dyke and South Landing.
- there is a varved layer at Danes
Dyke which indicates the formation of a quiet lake.
- there was a much wider bay/valley
at South Landing which was filled in with chalk rubble from the north before
the final glaciation.
Quaternary of
Holderness - started 2003
- is the Quaeternay history of Holderness
more complex that generally thought?
- has there been recycling of previous
Tills and deposits from the North Sea?
Urban geology
and geo-conservation - started 1990.
Bibliography of
East Yorkshire Geology 1938 onwards- started ca. 1985.
History of geological work in
the region
- History of the Hull Geological
Society 1888-1988 (published 1989)
- (updated
version with colour photographs online)
(full
bibliography of published work)
home
updated March 2008.
