scholarly journals On the Marine Shells of the South Wales Coal-Basin

The Geologist ◽  
1858 ◽  
Vol 1 (12) ◽  
pp. 505-509
Author(s):  
G. P. Bevan

Until of late years, the South Wales coal-field was considered to be very barren in fossils, and those few which were known were all thought to be of land or fresh-water origin. During my endeavours to work out the geology of this district for the last four years, I have, however, discovered sufficient to redeem it from such a reproach, and to prove that not only are there fossils, but that these are even in great numbers and variety.The basin, which occupies portions of Monmouthshire, Glamorganshire, Breconshire, and Carmarthenshire, may be separated into two great divisions, both geologically and chemically. The first is the division into upper and lower coal-measures, separated by a thick mass of Pennant sandstone, or grit, while the chemical is the division into bituminous and anthracitic coals. The upper measures are principally found in Glamorgan and Carmarthenshires, the only coal-seam of that series in Monmouthshire, being known as the Mynyddswlyn vein. Westward of the Taff, however, which is the boundary between the two countries, the upper measures appear more frequently, and in more regular sequence; while, in Carmarthenshire, we obtain a complete section of these beds down to the Pennant rock, in the neighbourhoods of Llanelly, Penllergare, and Lloughor. The middle, or Pennant rock series attains its greatest development at Swansea, where it is 3,000 feet in thickness, and presents several important beds of coal; but in the eastern portion of this field they are very much thinner, and contain little or no workable coal. The summits of the hills which bound the parallel valleys on the north crop, are nearly all capped with this grit, which adds much to the peculiar configuration of the country, and gives a certain identity of outline to its general features.

1905 ◽  
Vol 2 (11) ◽  
pp. 506-507 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Stobbs

This important Coal-measure zonal Lamellibranch has already been recorded from the Yorkshire and Nottingham Coalfield (Cadeby and Gedling Colliery respectively), the Lancashire Coal-field (Ardwick, Manchester), the North Staffordshire Coalfield generally, the Forest of Dean and Bristol Coalfields, the South Wales Coalfield; and in all these widely separated districts it is found at the top of that portion of the Coal-measures characterised by the presence of the most valuable seams of coal.


The Geologist ◽  
1858 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 124-129
Author(s):  
George Phillips Bevan

In my former paper I endeavoured to describe the general appearance and characteristics of the limestone, millstone grit, and Pennant rocks of this coal-field, and shall now proceed to give a brief outline of the coal measures themselves and their fossil contents. As I stated before, the character of the coal is materially different in different parts of the basin; for instance, if a line be drawn from Merthyr to the sea in a south-western direction, it will divide the basin into two unequal portions, the eastern one containing bituminous coal, and the western the anthracite. I do not mean to say that there is an exact line of demarcation between the two kinds of coal, but merely that such a boundary will seem to show pretty well where the two qualities pass into one another. Curiously enough, too, in the western or anthracite portion the seams are anthracitic in the northern bassets, while the southern outcrops of the same veins are bituminous. The anthracite is now in very great demand; but, formerly, people would have nothing to do with it, and there was even a law passed to prevent its being burned in London, on account of its supposed noxious qualities, and the idea that it was detrimental to health. It differs from the bituminous coal principally in containing more carbon, less bituminous matter, and less ashes; and, as a consequence, is a much cleaner-burning coal. We may, however, dismiss the anthracite, as this portion of the field is destitute of it.


1895 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 565-614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Kidston

The Coal Measures of the South Wales Coal Field fall into three well-marked divisions:—I. The Upper Pennant or Upper Penllergare Series.II. The Lower Pennant Series.III. The White Ash Series.In 1885 I paid a visit to this Coal Field, with the object of studying its Fossil Flora, hoping by this means to ascertain the relative position of the Welsh Coal Measures to those of the other Coal Fields of Britain.


1932 ◽  
Vol 69 (6) ◽  
pp. 275-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Dix ◽  
S. H. Jones

A SMALL Arthropod was discovered by one of us (S. H. J.) in the course of investigations of the Coal Measures of the area around Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, on the north crop of the South Wales Coalfield. It is preserved in a fine grained, light blue shale from the roof of the Little Vein (lower part of the Pulchra Zone of Davies and Trueman), at the Blaina Colliery, Pantyffnon, about one mile south-west of Ammanford. The specimen is in the collection of the University College of Swansea, No. A. 152.


1871 ◽  
Vol 19 (123-129) ◽  
pp. 222-223

In this paper the author, embodying with his own the observations of previous writers on the physical geology of Great Britain, especially those of Murchison, Godwin-Austen, Ramsay, Phillips, and the late Professor Jukes, showed that the Coal-measures were originally distributed over large tracts of England, to the north and to the south of a central ridge or barrier of Old Silurian and Cambrian rocks, which stretched across the country from North Wales and Shropshire into the Eastern Counties, skirting the southern margin of the South Staffordshire Coal-field. This barrier, or ridge, was a land-surface till the close of the Carboniferous period.


1929 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 164-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. G. Evans ◽  
R. O. Jones

The precise age of the Millstone Grit of South Wales has been in doubt for some years. Although it has been shown to be of Upper Carboniferous age, it has been uncertain whether the whole of the earliest part of the Upper Carboniferous is represented by deposits in southern Britain. Some part of the Millstone Grit of Pembrokeshire has been regarded, on the basis of its flora, as of Middle Coal Measure or Yorkian age (Goode, 1913, p. 272). Similar conclusions have been reached by Dr. R. Crookall concerning part of the Millstone Grit of Somerset (1925, p. 403). As yet, the flora characteristic of the Lanarkian of northern Britain has not been proved to be present in South Wales and elsewhere in south Britain. On the other hand, it has been argued that the absence of a Lanarkian flora does not necessarily imply an important break in the sequence, since recent work on the lamellibranch fauna of various British coalfields points to the conclusion that the lowest part of the Lower Coal Series of South Wales is of approximately the same age as the Lower Coal Measures of northern England (Davies and Trueman, 1927, p. 253).


The Forest of Dean lies in a somewhat out-of-the-way corner of Gloucestershire, West of the Severn, and is bounded on the North-west by Herefordshire, and on the West and South by Monmouthshire and the Wye. The nearest coalfield is to the North, where a small area of Upper Carboniferous rocks occurs at Newent, also in Gloucestershire. The Bristol and Badstock coalfields lie some little distance to the South, and still further to the West is the great basin of South Wales. The Forest of Dean is remarkable for the simplicity of the structure of the Carboniferous area. As is well known, the basin is the most symmetrical in England, the beds, very little disturbed by faulting or folding, having, for the most part, a very regular outcrop. From the mining point of view, the entire absence of fire-damp and the consequent use of naked lights below ground, as is also the case in the Badstock coalfield, is remarkable. The Coal Measures, which occupy an area of about 16,700 acres, overlie beds which have long been spoken of as Millstone Grits, and these, with the Carboniferous Lime­-stone, form the elevated rim of the field, except for a short distance in the South-east, where the Coal Measures overstep both the so-called Millstone Grits and the Carboniferous Limestone (see p. 269). The latter has a much less regular distribution than the “Millstone Grits,” and a considerable development of the Limestone series is found to the North and West of the Forest, and this is continuous with a long tongue of Lower Carboniferous stretching South to Chepstow, and then South-west in the direction of Newport.


1963 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 99-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Wainwright

The distribution of Mesolithic sites in Wales is controlled to a great extent by the terrain, for physiographically, Wales is a highland block defined on three sides by the sea and for the greater part of the fourth side by a sharp break of slope. Geologically the Principality is composed almost entirely of Palaeozoic rocks, of which the 600-foot contour encloses more than three quarters of the total area. There are extensive regions above 1,500 feet and 2,000 feet and in the north the peaks of Snowdonia and Cader Idris rise to 3,560 feet and 2,929 feet respectively. Indeed North Wales consists of an inhospitable highland massif, skirted by a lowland plateau and cut deeply by river valleys, providing only limited areas for settlement. The hills and mountains of Snowdonia with their extension at lower altitudes into the Lleyn Peninsula, and the ranges of Moelwyn, Manod Mawr, Arenig Fach and Cader Idris, are discouraging obstacles to penetration, save for a short distance along the river valleys. To the east of these peaks are extensive tracts of upland plateau dissected by rivers, bounded on the west by the vale of the river Conway and cleft by the Vale of Clwyd. To the east of this valley lies the Clwydian Range and further again to the east these uplands descend with milder contours to the Cheshire and Shropshire plains.To the south the district merges into the uplands of Central Wales, which are continuous until they are replaced by the lowland belt of South Wales.


1865 ◽  
Vol 2 (10) ◽  
pp. 158-163
Author(s):  
G. Philips Bevan

There is not in Great Britain any coal-field so characeristic as that of South Wales; nor one which in outward appearance so little agrees with the general notion as to what a coal-field should be like. Instead of the barren and monotonous surface that we usually find in Durham, Staffordshire, Lancashire, or Scotland, we find scenery of a high order,—lofty hills, romantic dales, broken scaurs, and woods feathering down to the banks of the streams that run brawling to the Bristol Channel. It is a wonder indeed that tourists do not oftener explore these gems of South-West landscape, particularly as every valley is now accessible by railway. Nor is it merely in scenic interest that the basin is peculiar; for the very physical arrangement which gives the hill and dale enables much of the coal to be won by level, instead of pit, thus forming a marked feature in the economy of the working. It is with regard to this physical geography that I would say a few words, as viewed in relation to the geology of the basin.


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