Bristol Channel Fault Zone Explained

The Bristol Channel Fault Zone or Central Bristol Channel Fault Zone is a major south-dipping geological fault, or zone of faulting, running approximately west–east in the Bristol Channel between England and Wales.[1] It makes landfall just south of Weston-super-Mare and the Mendip Hills.[2] It forms a divide between the late Palaeozoic age South Wales basin to the north and the Culm Basin to the south. It marks a major change in the pre-Variscan geology of the United Kingdom, juxtaposing very different sequences of Devonian and Lower Carboniferous rocks.[3] During the Variscan, the fault may have acted as either a strike-slip fault or a thrust fault or indeed both; its nature remains uncertain.[4] During the Triassic to Jurassic, the fault zone was active as an extensional fault, controlling the development of the Bristol Channel Basin.[1]

See also

References

51.3333°N -16°W

Notes and References

  1. Variscan structure of the inner Bristol Channel, UK . Miliorizos M., Ruffell A. & Brooks M. . Journal of the Geological Society . 2004 . 161 . 31–44 . 10.1144/0016-764903-035.
  2. Book: The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal: Exhibiting a View of the Progressive Discoveries and Improvements in the Sciences and the Arts. 1841. Adam and Charles Black. 284.
  3. A Rheic cause for the Acadian deformation in Europe . Woodcock N.H., Soper N.J. & Strachan R.A. . Journal of the Geological Society . 2007 . 164 . 1023–1036 . 10.1144/0016-76492006-129.
  4. Woodcock, N.H. and Strachan, R.A. (eds) 2000 Geological History of Britain and Ireland Blackwell Science, (p230, 263)