Stratigraphical framework for the Ordovician and Silurian sedimentary strata of northern England and the Isle of Man

This report provides a comprehensive review of the lithostratigraphy of the Ordovician and Silurian sedimentary, excluding volcaniclastic, strata within the Lake District Lower Palaeozoic Inlier, the nearby northern England inliers of Cross Fell, Cautley and Dent, Craven and Teesdale, and the Isle of Man. It gives summary definitions of all the existing lithostratigraphical units, and attempts to resolve some of the inevitable anomalies resulting from the more than 20 years of recent research by members of the Lake District Regional Geological Survey team and academic collaborators. That research has led to publication of a new set of British Geological Survey (BGS) maps. This report complements the previously published review of the volcanic strata and intrusive igneous rocks of the same region (Millward, 2004, BGS Research Report RR/01/07). The Ordovician sedimentary rocks of Cumbria comprise the Skiddaw Group, whereas those of the Isle of Man form the Manx Group. These groups are correlatives and the stratigraphy is essentially that previously published by the BGS, but with definitions expanded where required. The main change is that the Tailbert Formation is now re-assigned to the Borrowdale Volcanic Group, in recognition of its dominantly volcaniclastic composition and its unconformable relationships with the underlying rocks of the Skiddaw Group; in this respect it resembles the Latterbarrow Sandstone Formation seen at the base of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group in the west of its outcrop. As its definition was omitted from Millward (2004), the Tailbert Sandstone Formation is included in Appendix 4. The Ingleton Group is considered here because of its long history of correlation with Lower Palaeozoic rocks in the Lake District. However, the absence of biostratigraphically significant fossils means that the group may equally be considered to be Precambrian in age. Though this conundrum remains unsolved, the petrological, structural and metamorphic characteristics of the Ingleton Group suggest that, on balance, these rocks should be regarded as Neoproterozoic in age. The uppermost Ordovician and Silurian rocks of the region are included within the Windermere Supergroup, wholly divided into groups that reflect the dominant packages of lithofacies present: in ascending order they are the Dent Group, of Ordovician age, succeeded by the Silurian Stockdale, Tranearth, Coniston and Kendal groups. The definition of the Windermere Supergroup is now widened to include the Silurian (Wenlock) Dalby Group in the Isle of Man to emphasise likely correlation. Only minor revisions have been made to the established constituent formations and their members, though definitions of many of these entries in the BGS Lexicon of named rock units are to be amplified from diverse literature sources. The most significant changes are summarised as follows: • Within the Dent Group, the Low Scales Sandstone Member, formerly at the base of the Kirkley Bank Limestone Formation in the Furness district, is transferred to the Stile End Formation, remaining at the same rank. In the same area, the Ireleth Member of the Kirkley Bank Limestone Formation is replaced by the Kentmere Limestone Member of the same formation. • In the Cross Fell Inlier, the term Swindale Shales is replaced by the Lake District Ash Gill Mudstone Formation. • In the Craven inliers, it is recommended that the Llandovery rocks are assigned to the historic Stockdale Group and its constituent Skelgill and Browgill mudstone formations, rendering the relatively recently named Crummack Formation and its component Hunterstye and Capple Bank members obsolete. In the Craven inliers, it is further recommended that the term Arcow Formation is replaced by Coldwell Siltstone Formation which is in use across the rest of the region. • Also in the Craven inliers, the Austwick Formation (Tranearth Group) is redefined to comprise only the sandstone-dominated succession, with its original lower part assigned to the Brathay Mudstone Formation. It is also recommended that the Horton Formation reverts to its earlier definition; consequently, its parent is the Tranearth Group. The Studfold Sandstone is elevated to formation rank within the Coniston Group. The siltstone succession (also previously part of the Horton Formation), overlying the Studfold Sandstone Formation and underlying the Neals Ing Sandstone Formation, is newly defined as the Sannat Hall Siltstone Formation. • Within the Kendal Group of the southern Lake District, the Underbarrow Flag and Scout Hill formations become redundant and the strata subsumed within the Kirkby Moor Sandstone Formation

Devonian and Carboniferous stratigraphical correlation and interpretation in the Central North Sea, Quadrants 25 – 44

This report details the stratigraphy and palaeogeography of Devonian and Carboniferous rocks of the UK Central North Sea for the 21CXRM Palaeozoic project. The 21CXRM Palaeozoic project results are delivered as a series of reports and digital datasets for each area. This report describes the stratigraphical correlation of Devonian and Carboniferous strata south of, and over, the Mid North Sea High (Quadrants 25-44) using both well and seismic data. It builds on the work of Cameron (1993a) and others, and uses lithostratigraphy to understand how facies vary across the area. A major outcome of this work is the detailed description of the Cleveland Group, the basinal correlative of the Scremerston, Yoredale and Millstone Grit formations within the offshore extension of the Cleveland Basin

The Millstone Grit Group (Pennsylvanian) of the Northumberland-Solway Basin and Alston Block of northern England

In the Northumberland–Solway Basin and Alston Block of northern England, some aspects of the stratigraphical and sedimentological relationships between the Millstone Grit Group, the Stainmore Formation (Namurian part of the Yoredale Group) and the Westphalian Pennine Coal Measures Group are uncertain. Also, confusion has resulted from discontinuation of Millstone Grit as a formal lithostratigraphical term north of the Stainmore Basin. This paper presents the evidence for, and describes the nature of, a Kinderscoutian (early Pennsylvanian) abrupt transition from typical ‘Yoredale cyclicity’, characterized by marine limestones in a dominantly siliciclastic succession but including marked fluvial channels, to a sandstone-dominated fluvial succession recognizable as the Millstone Grit Group. Sandbodies present in this region are probably the fluvial feeder systems to many of the fluvio-deltaic successions recorded farther south in the Central Pennine Basin. However, onset of the Millstone Grit Group occurs much earlier to the south, during the Pendleian (late Mississippian), despite the entry of fluvial systems into the Central Pennines Basin from the north. In addition to explaining this counter-intuitive relationship, the paper also recognizes continuation of the fluvial regime into the lowermost part of the Pennine Coal Measures Group

Norham West Mains Farm borehole : operations report

A borehole was drilled to a total depth of 501.33 m by Drilcorp Ltd at Norham West Mains Farm, near the village of Norham, Berwick upon Tweed. Work was commenced on the 27th of March 2013 and completed on 7th Obtaining cores from the Norham West Mains Farm Borehole is a major task within the TW:eed Project, which is investigating how limbed vertebrates adapted to walk on land around 360 million years ago (see June 2013. The borehole was fully cored from 10.22 m to its total depth through rocks of the Lower Carboniferous Inverclyde Group. http://www.tetrapods.org/). This was a key stage in the evolution of life on Earth and shaped the future evolution of vertebrates, including the eventual appearance of humans. The project builds on some unique new fossil finds made recently in the Scottish Borders and adjacent areas. Analysis of the borehole will provide a framework upon which this research is to be pinned. This scientific research programme is being undertaken by a consortium of organisations led by the University of Cambridge, and including the universities of Southampton and Leicester, the National Museums of Scotland and the British Geological Survey, and funded through the Natural Environment Research Council

Mississippian reef development in the Cracoe Limestone Formation of the southern Askrigg Block, North Yorkshire, UK

The southern margin of the Askrigg Block around Cracoe, North Yorkshire, shows a transition from carbonate ramp to reef-rimmed shelf margin, which, based on new foraminiferal/algal data, is now constrained to have initiated during the late Asbian. A late Holkerian to early Asbian ramp facies that included small mudmounds developed in comparatively deeper waters, in a transition zone between the proximal ramp, mudmound-free carbonates of the Scaleber Quarry Limestone Member (Kilnsey Formation) and the distal Hodderense Limestone and lower Pendleside Limestone formations of the adjacent Craven Basin. The ramp is envisaged as structurally fragmented, associated with sudden thickness and facies changes. The late Asbian to early Brigantian apron reefs and isolated reef knolls of the Cracoe Limestone Formation include massive reef core and marginal reef flank facies, the latter also including development of small mudmounds on the deeper water toes of back-reef flanks. The position of the apron/knoll reefs is constrained to the south (hangingwall) of the North Craven Fault, but it is syn-depositional displacement on the Middle Craven Fault that accounts for the thick reefal development. Subsequent inversion of this structure during the early Brigantian caused uplift and abandonment of the reefs and consequent burial by the Bowland Shale Formation

Tectonic synthesis and contextual setting for the Central North Sea and adjacent onshore areas, 21CXRM Palaeozoic Project

This report is designed simply to provide a summary tectonic outline and contextual setting against which offshore seismic and well data relating to the Devono-Carboniferous evolution of the Central North Sea, Forth Approaches, and adjacent UK onshore region can be considered. This summary is intended to help better frame the questions that will arise during interrogation of that data; the findings that result from that analysis are presented elsewhere in the report series (Arsenikos et al., 2015; Kimbell & Williamson, 2015; Monaghan et al., 2015). Apparently contradictory, wrench- or extension-dominated patterns of Lower Carboniferous basin development are recorded in the Forth Approaches, Quadrant 29, North Dogger and Silverpit basins of the Central North Sea, as well as the Midland Valley of Scotland (MVS) and Northumberland and Solway basins onshore. Partitioning Carboniferous deformation across inherited pre-existing Caledonian or Tornquist structures is likely to be an important control on the tectonic architecture developed in these regions during intervals of the geological record in the Carboniferous. Onshore, spatially separate but contemporaneous domains of extension-dominated tectonics versus wrench-dominated tectonics explain the contrasting tectonic framework of the MVS/Forth Approaches region (wrench-dominated) compared with Northumberland Basin (classic ‘stags head’ structure). NE-SW trending Caledonian inheritance strongly controls the domain boundaries and the patterns of deformation created in each of these domains. Offshore, in the Devono-Carboniferous basins of the Central North Sea, the likelihood that strain is partitioned in a similar way across features inherited from the NW-SE Tornquist trend is proposed and examined. The data currently under consideration suggests that a NW-SE trending wrench-dominated domain is spatially associated with the region underlain by the Dogger Granite pluton; domains affected by extension-dominated tectonics appear to be arranged on either side of that feature, namely the Quadrant 29 and North Dogger basins to the NE, and the Silverpit Basin to the SW. Extension is expressed as a NE-SW directed stretch in both of these domains. Patterns of broadly N-S trending fold axes need to be carefully assessed in terms of their structural setting, as folding cannot implicitly be linked with inversion/compression when partitioned strains are developed. Superficially similar features can develop in the MVS in dextral transpression, in north Northumberland buttressed around the Cheviot Granite in overall dextral wrench, and as superimposed late compressional folds in end-Variscan convergence, for example in the Boldon syncline of County Durham. Offshore, similar inversion effects can be seen in the patterns of transpressive faulting associated with features such as the Murdoch Ridge, and with examples of superimposed NE-SW trending extensional faults active in the latest Carboniferous to early Permian

Lithostratigraphy and biostratigraphy of the Lower Carboniferous (Mississippian) carbonates of the southern Askrigg Block, North Yorkshire, UK

A rationalized lithostratigraphy for the Great Scar Limestone Group of the southeast Askrigg Block is established. The basal Chapel House Limestone Formation, assessed from boreholes, comprises shallow-marine to supratidal carbonates that thin rapidly northwards across the Craven Fault System, onlapping a palaeotopographical high of Lower Palaeozoic strata. The formation is of late Arundian age in the Silverdale Borehole, its northernmost development. The overlying Kilnsey Formation represents a southward-thickening and upward-shoaling carbonate development on a south-facing carbonate ramp. Foraminiferal/algal assemblages suggest a late Holkerian and early Asbian age, respectively, for the uppermost parts of the lower Scaleber Force Limestone and upper Scaleber Quarry Limestone members, significantly younger than previously interpreted. The succeeding Malham Formation comprises the lower Cove Limestone and upper Gordale Limestone members. Foraminiferal/ algal assemblages indicate a late Asbian age for the formation, contrasting with the Holkerian age previously attributed to the Cove Limestone. The members reflect a change from a partially shallow-water lagoon (Cove Limestone) to more open-marine shelf (Gordale Limestone), coincident with the onset of marked sea-level fluctuations and formation of palaeokarstic surfaces with palaeosoils in the latter. Facies variations along the southern flank of the Askrigg Block, including an absence of fenestral lime-mudstone in the upper part of the Cove Limestone and presence of dark grey cherty grainstone/packstone in the upper part the Gordale Limestone are related to enhanced subsidence during late Asbian movement on the Craven Fault System. This accounts for the marked thickening of both members towards the Greenhow Inlier

Iterative in Situ Click Chemistry Assembles a Branched Capture Agent and Allosteric Inhibitor for Akt1

We describe the use of iterative in situ click chemistry to design an Akt-specific branched peptide triligand that is a drop-in replacement for monoclonal antibodies in multiple biochemical assays. Each peptide module in the branched structure makes unique contributions to affinity and/or specificity resulting in a 200 nM affinity ligand that efficiently immunoprecipitates Akt from cancer cell lysates and labels Akt in fixed cells. Our use of a small molecule to preinhibit Akt prior to screening resulted in low micromolar inhibitory potency and an allosteric mode of inhibition, which is evidenced through a series of competitive enzyme kinetic assays. To demonstrate the efficiency and selectivity of the protein-templated in situ click reaction, we developed a novel QPCR-based methodology that enabled a quantitative assessment of its yield. These results point to the potential for iterative in situ click chemistry to generate potent, synthetically accessible antibody replacements with novel inhibitory properties

Conditions of graphite precipitation in the volcanic-hosted deposits at Borrowdale (Cumbria, UK)

Depto. de Mineralogía y PetrologíaFac. de Ciencias GeológicasTRUEpu

Static Ricci-flat 5-manifolds admitting the 2-sphere

We examine, in a purely geometrical way, static Ricci-flat 5-manifolds admitting the 2-sphere and an additional hypersurface-orthogonal Killing vector. These are widely studied in the literature, from different physical approaches, and known variously as the Kramer - Gross - Perry - Davidson - Owen solutions. The 2-fold infinity of cases that result are studied by way of new coordinates (which are in most cases global) and the cases likely to be of interest in any physical approach are distinguished on the basis of the nakedness and geometrical mass of their associated singularities. It is argued that the entire class of solutions has to be considered unstable about the exceptional solutions: the black string and soliton cases. Any physical theory which admits the non-exceptional solutions as the external vacuua of a collapsing object has to accept the possibility of collapse to zero volume leaving behind the weakest possible, albeit naked, geometrical singularities at the origin.Finally, it is pointed out that these types of solutions generalize, in a straightforward way, to higher dimensions.Comment: Generalize, in a straightforward way, to higher dimension