Pennine Coal Measures Group


The Pennine Coal Measures Group is a lithostratigraphical term referring to the coal-bearing succession of rock strata which occur in the United Kingdom within the Westphalian Stage of the Carboniferous Period. In formal use, the term replaces the Coal Measures Group as applied to the succession of coal-bearing strata within the Pennine Basin which includes all of the coalfields of northern England and the English Midlands. It includes the largely concealed Canonbie Coalfield of southern Scotland and the coalfields of northeast Wales and the minor Anglesey coalfield. The sequence consists in the main of mudstones and siltstones together with numerous sandstones, the more significant ones of which are individually named. Some are laterally extensive, others are more restricted in their range. There are numerous coal seams, again with some being more laterally continuous than others. Those which were economically valuable were named though any individual seam may have attracted different names in different pits and different districts. Marine bands preserving distinctive and dateable marine fossils such as goniatites and brachiopods are widespread within the sequence and enable correlation to be made between sequences in one part of the basin and another and with other basins
Descriptions of the coal seams are found within articles on the individual coalfields. Many of the sandstones give rise to distinct features in the landscape as they are more resistant to weathering and erosion than the intervening shales. Some have been quarried for building material, including flagstones for paving. East of the Pennines, the following main sandstone beds are recorded :
To the west of the Pennines, the following are recorded:
The term Productive Coal Measures was formerly used for this succession. The Group comprises the:
The Pennine Coal Measures Group is preceded by the Millstone Grit Group which is of Namurian age. It is succeeded by the Warwickshire Group which comprises a largely non-productive sequence of red beds.