The Mississippian Derbyshire and North Wales carbonate platforms were formed in similar tectonic settings within the Pennine and East Irish Sea Basin, respectively. The Derbyshire Platform was surrounded by sub-basins to the north, west, and south whilst the North Wales Platform, 130 km west, had a simpler land-attached geometry. Comparison of these age-equivalent platforms allows the controls on sedimentation, at an important juncture in Earth history, to be evaluated. Both platforms are dominated by moderate-to-high-energy, laterally discontinuous facies, with weak evidence for facies cyclicity, suggesting multiple controls on deposition. Influx of siliciclastic mud on the North Wales Platform led to perturbations in carbonate accumulation; along with abundant palaeosols and coal beds this implies a more humid climate, or shallower water depths compared to the Derbyshire Platform. On both platforms, exposure surfaces can rarely be correlated over >500 metres except for a regionally correlative palaeokarstic surface at the Asbian-Brigantian boundary. This exposure event appears to coincide with a significant regional facies change. Given the lack of evidence for ordering and cyclicity within the strata, the Asbian-Brigantian boundary may mark a significant event that could reflect onset of a transitional climate, prior to the second glaciation event in the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age.
Morphological abnormality in thornback ray Raja clavata in the Irish Sea
