Redcar Mudstone Formation at Staithes

 

Lithostratigraphical position of the Redcar Mudstone Formation

Group Stage Formation Member

LIAS

Pliensbachian

Redcar Mudstone

Ironstone Shale

Pyritous Shale

 

The Redcar Formation is a grey, fossiliferous mudstone and siltstone with subordinate thin beds of shelly limestone below, and fine-grained carbonate cemented sandstone above; argillaceous limestone concretions occur throughout.

The upper boundary is gradational with the overlying Staithes Sandstone Formation, but is taken for consistency at the base of the "Oyster Bed", a fossiliferous calcareous and ferruginous sandstone packed with the bivalves Gryphea gigantea, Oxytoma inaequivalvis and Pseudopecten aequivalvis. This layer appears to persist as a continuous horizon throughout the Cleveland

 

Limestone Concretions

Argillaceous limestone concretions in the Redcar Mudstone

Argillaceous limestone concretions in the Redcar Mudstone

Image by dated: July, 2004