GEOLOGY 



JUST as the county of Staffordshire is situated toward the centre of 

 England, so the geological formations met within its boundaries 

 occupy a similar position in the geological scale. Tracing the 



well-known orderly ascending sequence of rocks from the oldest 

 in Wales to the newest in the eastern counties, we find in the Triassic 

 formation of the midlands the central link between these two extremes. 



The rocky ridges which characterise the older formations on the 

 Welsh borderlands, when traced eastward, pass gradually beneath a 

 mantle of red Triassic sandstones and marls, until in Staffordshire the 

 latter form the commonest features of the landscape. Rising as islands 

 out of them much older formations appear at the surface in the north 

 and south, where by their bolder scenic aspects they afford a sharp contrast 

 to the monotonous and softer outline of the red rocks ; and since the 

 minerals essential to modern civilization are found in these older strata 

 their presence is indicated by the great centres of population whose 

 natural wants have been largely supplied from the rich grazing lands and 

 vast reservoirs of pure underground water existing in the enveloping 

 newer formation. The study of the geology of the county therefore 

 forms the natural prelude to its history. 



Extending as they do over by far the larger part of the county, the 

 red Triassic rocks, which have been aptly compared to a solidified sea, 

 afford a datum to which the other stratified deposits may be conveni- 

 ently referred. This great spread of one formation has been brought 

 about by the dying away, ere it reaches the centre of the county, of the 

 great Pennine uplift, which further north divides the Trias into an 

 eastern and western portion. Thrown into wide gentle undulations 

 where the major Pennine movement has died away, the formation 

 naturally covers a wide expanse ; but these red rock waves may be said 

 to have piled themselves up and broken against two ancient ridges : 

 first, in North Staffordshire against the carboniferous offshoot of Derby- 

 shire ; secondly, against the carboniferous uplift in South Staffordshire. 

 In this way the conspicuous island character of these older deposits has 

 arisen. Further, in the highest summits of the South Staffordshire island 

 we recognize in the Dudley Hills and Sedgley Beacon the unburied peaks 

 of Silurian strata, standing as lonely outposts of the Silurian territory to 

 the west. 



It will be gathered from this that the formations represented are 

 few in number. Of the three main divisions into which geologists have 

 separated the stratified rocks, only the later portion of the great Palae- 

 ozoic, the early stages of the Mesozoic and latest phases of the 



