The Millstone Grit (namurian) of the southern pennines viewed in the light of eustatically controlled sequence stratigraphy

The overall lithological succession in the Millstone Grit of the southern Pennines was most probably controlled by glacial-eustatic sea-level oscillations and may be interpreted in terms of the systems tracts of sequence stratigraphy. Bands containing thick-shelled goniatites represent ‘condensed sections’ formed at times of maximum flooding. Turbidite-fronted deltas, marking major basin-filling episodes, resemble ‘lowstand systems tracts’. However all sand influxes did not necessarily occur during lowstands. Millstone Grit sheet deltas and elongate deltas resemble lobate and birdfoot deltas in Recent ‘highstand systems tracts’. The prograding fluviodeltaic complexes at the tops of some major turbidite-fronted deltas were braid deltas. So was the sheet-like channel complex of the Rough Rock at the top of the Millstone Grit, but this was probably part of a ‘highstand systems tract’.