Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T09:13:33.164Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Miocene palynoflora preserved by karstic subsidence in Anglesey and the origin of the Menaian Surface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2017

Peter Walsh
Affiliation:
Katedra Geomorfologii, Uniwersytet Śląski, ul. Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland
Iwona Morawiecka
Affiliation:
Katedra Geomorfologii, Uniwersytet Śląski, ul. Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland
Krystyna Skawińska-wieser
Affiliation:
Zaklad Paleobotaniki, Instytut Botaniki, P.A.N., ul. Lubicz 46, 31-512 Kraków, Poland

Abstract

A fossil flora of Miocene age has been preserved by karstic agencies in a solution subsidence complex developed in a large exotic block of limestone, part of the Gwna Group mélange (?Cambrian), at Trwyn y Parc, Cemaes Bay, Anglesey. The flora suggests that the Menaian Surface and the Snowdonian Mountain block were already well established landscape features by the end of the Miocene. The wider geomorphological implications of the find are briefly discussed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Balson, P. S. 1990. The ‘Trimley Sands’ – a former Neogene deposit from Eastern England. Tertiary Research 11, 145–58.Google Scholar
Battiau-Queney, Y. 1980. Contribution à l'étude géomorphologique du Massif Gallois (G.B.). Thése lettres, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Honore Champion, Paris.Google Scholar
Belbin, S. 1985. Long term landform development in NW England: the application of the planation concept. In The geomorphology of North-west England (ed. Johnson, R. H.), pp. 3758. Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Bevins, R. E., Horák, J. M., Evans, A. D. & Morgan, R. 1996. Palaeogene dyke swarm, NW Wales: evidence for Cenozoic sinistral fault movement. Journal of the Geological Society, London 150, 177–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boulter, M. C. 1971. A palynological study of two of the Neogene plant beds in Derbyshire. Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History (Geology) 19,360411.Google Scholar
Boulter, M. C. 1980. Irish Tertiary plant fossils in a European context. Journal of Earth Science of the Royal Dublin Society 3, 111.Google Scholar
Cope, J. C. W. 1994. A latest Cretaceous hotspot and the south-easterly tilt of Britain. Journal of the Geological Society, London 151,905–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coque-Delhuille, B. 1991. La plate-forme d'abrasion marine Pliocène du sud-ouest Anglais. Norois 38, 3959.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curry, D., Adams, C. G., Boulter, M. C., Dilley, F. C., Eames, F. E., Funnell, B. M. & Wells, M. K. 1978. A correlation of Tertiary rocks in the British Isles. Special report of the Geological Society of London, no. 12, 72 pp.Google Scholar
Curry, D. 1992. Tertiary. In The Geology of England and Wales (eds Duff, P. McL. D. and Smith, A. J.), pp. 389411. The Geological Society of London, 651 pp.Google Scholar
De Dapper, M. 1981. Geomorfologische studie van het plateau-complex rond Kolwezi (Shaba, Zaïre). Verhandelingen Van de Koninklije Akademie van Wetenschappen, Letteren on Schone Kunsten Van Belgie, Wetenschappen 43, 172203.Google Scholar
Evans, C. D. R., Hillis, R. R., Gatliff, R. W., Day, G. A. & Edwards, J. W. F. 1990. The geology of the Western English Channel and its western approaches. London: H.M.S.O. for the British Geological Survey. 93 pp.Google Scholar
Flinn, D. 1994. Essay review: Coastal geomorphology – the landform without a name. Geological Journal 29, 81–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenly, E. 1919. The Geology of Anglesey (2 vols). Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain.Google Scholar
Hailwood, E. A., Maddock, R. H., ting, Fung & Rutter, E. H. 1992. Palaeomagnetic analysis of fault gouge and dating fault movement, Anglesey, North Wales. Journal of the Geological Society, London 145, 273–84.Google Scholar
Hamblin, R. J. O., Crosby, A., Balson, P. S., Jones, S. M., Chadwick, R. A., Penn, I. E. & Arthur, M. J. 1992. United Kingdom offshore report: the geology of the English Channel. London: H.M.S.O. for the British Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Herbert-smith, M. 1979. The age of the Tertiary deposits of the Llanbedr (Mochras Farm) Borehole as determined from palynological studies. Reports of the Institute of Geological Sciences 7824, 1329.Google Scholar
Jowsey, N. L., Parkin, D. L., Slipper, I. J., Smith, A. P. C. & Walsh, P. T. 1992. The geology and geomorphology of the Beacon Cottage Farm Outlier, St Agnes, Cornwall. Geological Magazine 129, 101–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larsonneur, C. 1972. Données sur l'évolution palaéogéo graphique post-Hercynien du Manche. Mémoires du Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières 79, 203–14.Google Scholar
Mitchell, G. F. 1980. The search for Tertiary Ireland. Journal of Earth Science of the Royal Dublin Society 3, 1333.Google Scholar
Moffat, A. J., Catt, J. A., Webster, R. & Brown, E. H. 1986. A re-examination of the evidence for a Plio-Pleistocene marine transgression on the Chiltern Hills: III. Deposits. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 11, 233–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morawiecka, I. M., Slipper, I. J. & Walsh, P. T. 1996. A palaeokarst of probable Kainozoic age preserved in Cambrian marble at Cemaes Bay, Anglesey, North Wales. Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie N.F. 40, 4770.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muir, M. D., Bliss, G. M., Grant, P. R. & Fisher, M. 1979. Palaeontological evidence for the age of some supposedly Precambrian rocks in Anglesey, North Wales. Journal of the Geological Society, London 136, 61–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ollier, C. D. 1991. Ancient landforms. London: Bellhaven Press, 253 pp.Google Scholar
Peat, C. J. 1984. Comments on Britain's oldest microfossils. Journal of Micropalaeontology 3, 6571.Google Scholar
Ramsay, A. C. 1846. The denudation of south Wales and the adjacent English counties. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, vol. 1.Google Scholar
Tappin, D. R., Chadwick, R. A., Jackson, A. A., Wingfield, R. T. R. & Smith, N. J. P. 1994. The geology of Cardigan Bay and the Bristol Channel. London: H.M.S.O. for the British Geological Survey, 107 pp.Google Scholar
Walsh, P. T., Boulter, M. C., Ijtaba, M. & Urbani, D. M. 1972. The preservation of the Neogene Brassington Formation of the southern Pennines and its bearing on the evolution of Upland Britain. Journal of the Geological Society, London 128, 519–59.Google Scholar
Walsh, P. T., Collins, P., Ijtaba, M., Newton, J. P., Scott, N. H. & Turner, P. R. 1980. Palaeocurrent directions and their bearing on the origin of the Brassington Formation (Miocene-Pliocene) of the southern Pennines, Derbyshire, England. Mercian Geologist 8,4762.Google Scholar
Walsh, P. T., Atkinson, K., Boulter, M. C. & Shakesby, R. A. 1987. The Oligocene and Miocene outliers of west Cornwall and their bearing on the geomorphological evolution of Oldland Britain. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 323, 211–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watts, W. A. 1985. Quaternary vegetation cycles. In The Quaternary history of Ireland (eds. Edwards, K. J. and Warren, W. P.), pp. 155–85. London: The Academic Press.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, G. C. & Boulter, M. C. 1980. Oligocene pollen and spores from the western part of the British Isles. Palaeontographica Abt. B 175, 2783.Google Scholar
Wilson, D. I. 1995. Soils of the central North Downs: their distribution, derivation and geomorphological significance. Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie N.F. 39,433–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, A. 1974. Submerged platform of marine abrasion round the coast of south-west Britain. Nature, London 252, 563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, A. 1976. Successive regressions and transgressions in the Neogene. Marine Geology 22, 23–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Worssam, B. C. 1963. Geology of the country around Maidstone. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, 152pp.Google Scholar
Ziembińska-Twordzydlo, M., Grabowska, I., Kohlman-Adamska, A., Skawińska, K., Slodowska, B., Stuchlik, L., Sadowska, A. & Zazyńska, H. 1992. Taxonomical revision of selected pollen and spore taxa from Neogene deposits. Acta Palaeobotanica, Warszawa, Supplement 1, 530.Google Scholar