Handbook of Birmingham: Prepared for the Members of the British Association, 1886British Association for the Advancement of Science
History
Handbook of Birmingham: Prepared for the Members of the British Association, 1886
British Association for the Advancement of Science
Birmingham (England); Natural history -- England -- Birmingham
The undisputed Rhætic rocks lie between the White Lias and the
Triassic Marls. In Warwickshire they are rarely exposed, and then much
reduced in bulk, compared with their development in Gloucester and
Glamorgan. They may be seen to a limited extent below the White Lias
in the railway cutting at Harbury, where a band of yellowish sandstone
contains the small bivalved crustacean, _Estheria minuta_; and also at
the small outlier of Brown’s Wood, and at Stooper’s Wood, near Wooton
Wawen, where this sandstone occurs with inferior shelly limestones and
sandy bands, containing the usual Rhætic fossils, _e.g._, _Cardium
Rhæticum_, _Avicula contorta_, _Pleurophorus elongatus_, _Pecten
valoniensis_, and _Schizodus cloacinus_. The nearest exposure of the
Rhætic to Birmingham occurs round the fringe of an outlier of Lower
Lias resting on the Upper Red Marl near the village of Knowle. This
outlier is about a mile and a half long, by half a mile broad. Its
highest beds at Copt Heath contain _Ammonites planorbis_. The beds
referred to the Rhætic include a stratum of yellow micaceous sandstone
full of _Schizodus cloacinus_, which, though usually in the form
of casts, is sharp and well defined. The bone bed, though no where
exposed, is probably present in its normal position. A fine section,
with numerous characteristic Rhætic fossils was exposed on the railway
cutting at Summer Hill, between Stratford and Alcester. Rhætic black
shales were passed through at Snitterfield, in making a tunnel in
connection with the new reservoir for Stratford.
Glacial and Post Tertiary Deposits.
BY H. W. CROSSKEY, LL.D., F.G.S.
Post Tertiary Deposits are scattered profusely over the district
of which Birmingham is the centre, and present many problems of
too complicated a character to be discussed in the pages of this
guide. It must suffice to indicate a few of their chief exposures
and characteristics. The term “_Boulder Clay_” is used in this note
to denote a clay shown to be connected with the Glacial epoch, by
containing a greater or less number of erratic blocks; and in the
employment of the term, no theory regarding the method of formation of
the deposit will be implied.
The Post Tertiary deposits of the district may be arranged in the
following general order:--
I.--Lower boulder clays.
II.--Middle glacial clays, sands, and gravels.
III.--Upper boulder clays.
IV.--Post glacial clay, sands, and gravels.
The most complete section that has been found is at “California,” near
Harborne.
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