School Wood Site

OD

Passage Formation

2m
Passage Formation In its upper two thirds, this unit is dominated by white or off-white and reddish-brown, fine- to coarse-grained sandstones with some quartz-pebble conglomerates, interbedded with mudstone in shades of reddish-brown (occasionally purple and grey). Coal seams underlie many of the mudstones but are thin and discontinuous. The sandstones are upward fining and are mainly sub-arkoses occurring in beds up to 80ft thick. The lower part of the formation closely resembles that of the underlying Upper Limestone Formation. It includes up to three thin marine limestones or fossiliferous mudstones with sandstones and thick unbedded mudstones. Pink and multicoloured fireclays are a notable feature of the lower part of the Passage Formation.

50m

100m

Roman Cement Limestone

150m

130.5m 161m
Upper Limestone Formation This formation consists of long upward coarsening sequences of grey to black mudstone, overlain by siltstone and off-white to brown, fine- to medium-grained sandstone, capped by seatearth, limestone and occasionally coal. The coals are usually less than 2ft thick, with one exception, the Upper Hirst Coal, which is consistently thick and can reach up to 8.4ft in northern areas. Basalt and volcanogenic sediments such as waterlain tuff and tuffaceous siltstone occur at several levels in the formation, especially in central, eastern and southern parts. These beds are usually very thin in the north but exceptionally may be 10-200ft thick in the south of the area.

Upper Limestone Formation

Castlecary Limestone
200m

Plean No 2&3 Limestone

201m

250m

300m

350m

Upper Hirst Coal

351m

400m

450m

Limestone Coal Formation This unit consists of repeated short sequences of black or grey mudstone passing upwards into siltstone or laminated silty mudstone and sandstone which are overlain in turn by seatearth and thick coal. Often, the cycles are incomplete, with one or more of the component lithologies absent, making local correlation difficult, especially in the upper part of the sequence where variability is most pronounced. The sandstones are generally fine- to medium-grained and off-white or buff in colour. Thick (25-100ft) channel sandstones are present which have sharp erosive bases and become finer grained upwards. Beds of ironstone, both clayband and blackband (clayband interleaved with coal) are common in the east-central and northeastern parts of the area. A single, thin, freshwater limestone (the Berryhills Limestone) is intermittently present near the top of the formation. Strata with a marine fauna occur within the lower part of the formation in the Johnstone Shell Bed and the Black Metals, and become more prevalent towards the west. This fossiliferous rock is dark grey or black, slightly calcareous mudstone usually with thin clayband ironstone beds and nodules. The Black Metals is an unusually thick and persistent bed of dark grey bituminous shaly mudstone.

500m

550m

600m

Index Limestone

Limestone Coal Formation

650m

630m

Blairhall Main Coal

700m

681.50m

Elevation (mAOD)

750m

800m

850m

Lower Bannockburn Coal Jersey No 3 Coal

847.50m 881m 896.50m

900m

Lochgelly Splint Coal Black Metals Marine Band

950m

1000m

1050m

Cowdenbeath Five Foot Coal Cowdenbeath Two Foot Coal Lower Knott Coal (Dunfermline Splint)

1043m 1055m 1073m

1100m

1150m

1200m

1250m