THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE V. VOL. VI. 



No. VIL — JULY, 1909. 



ORIG-insr^^IL. .A.E,TICILiES. 



I. — The Geology of the Loaver Coal-measures of the Derbyshire 

 AND Nottinghamshire portion of the Yorkshire Coalfield. 



By Robert DoroLAss Vernon, E.Sc. , University College, Nottingham. 



Introduction. 



rpHE lithological character and sequence of the lower part of the 

 JL Coal-measures of the Y^orkshire' Coalfield have been well known 

 since the publication of the memoir by the Geological Survey in 1878. 

 Kg connected account of the explorations in the equivalent measures 

 of the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire portion of the coalfield has 

 been written ; thus the close correspondence which exists between 

 the lower part of the Coal-measures of Yorkshire and that of Derbyshire 

 and Nottinghamshire is still generally unknown. 



The sequence under consideration includes more than 800 feet of 

 measures lying between the top of the First Grit of the Millstone 

 Grit Series and a well-known Derbyshire seam, the Kilburn Coal. 

 These lower measures continue from Yorkshire through Derbyshire 

 with a north and south strike which changes to east and west on the 

 southern border of the coalfield. Continuous escarpments of Millstone 

 Grit form the western border of the coalfield, but on the south, with 

 the exception of a small area of the First Grit, the measures below the 

 Kilburn Coal are faulted down and buried under the Triassic rocks 

 to the west of Nottingham. 



The object of this paper is to discuss the evidence afforded by bore- 

 holes and sinkings for the presence of these Lower Coal-measures on the 

 soiithern margin of the Derbyshire Coalfield and their continuation 

 under the Trias of Nottinghamshire ; and further to show, by means 

 of plotted sections, the marked southerly attenuation which occurs in 

 the lowest portion of the sequence. 



The recent trial shaft at the Kilbourne Colliery affords Taluable 

 evidence for the occurrence of these rocks in Derbyshire ; from the 

 details given in the Survey Memoir (1), Fig. 1, Section I, and Fig. 2, 

 Section II, have been plotted to serve as a type with which to compare 

 the sections described below. 



DECADE v. — VOL. VI. — NO. VII. 19 



