Sedimentary Geology 210 (2008) 27–47

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Sedimentary Geology
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / s e d g e o

Palaeoenvironments and palaeotectonics of the arid to hyperarid intracontinental

latest Permian- late Triassic Solway basin (U.K.)
Michael E. Brookfield ⁎
Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica, P.O. Box 1-55 Nankang, Taipei 1159, Taiwan

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: The late Permian to late Triassic sediments of the Solway Basin consist of an originally flat-lying, laterally
Received 21 December 2007 persistent and consistent succession of mature, dominantly fine-grained red clastics laid down in part of a
Received in revised form 2 April 2008 very large intracontinental basin. The complete absence of body or trace fossils or palaeosols indicates a very
Accepted 10 June 2008
arid (hyperarid) depositional environment for most of the sediments. At the base of the succession, thin
regolith breccias and sandstones rest unconformably on basement and early Permian rift clastics. Overlying
Keywords:
gypsiferous red silty mudstones, very fine sandstones and thick gypsum were deposited in either a playa lake
Triassic
Permian
or in a hypersaline estuary, and their margins. These pass upwards into thick-bedded, multi-storied, fine- to
Solway very fine-grained red quartzo-felspathic and sublithic arenites in which even medium sand is rare despite
Basin channels with clay pebbles up to 30 cm in diameter. Above, thick trough cross-bedded and parallel laminated
Hyperarid fine-grained aeolian sandstones (deposited in extensive barchanoid dune complexes) pass up into very thick,
Palaeoenvironments multicoloured mudstones, and gypsum deposited in marginal marine or lacustrine sabkha environments.
Palaeotectonics The latter pass up into marine Lower Jurassic shales and limestones. Thirteen non-marine clastic lithofacies
are arranged into five main lithofacies associations whose facies architecture is reconstructed where possible
by analysis of large exposures. The five associations can be compared with the desert pavement, arid
ephemeral stream, sabkha, saline lake and aeolian sand dune environments of the arid to hyperarid areas of
existing intracontinental basins such as Lake Eyre and Lake Chad. The accommodation space in such basins is
controlled by gradual tectonic subsidence moderated by large fluctuations in shallow lake extent (caused by
climatic change and local variation) and this promotes a large-scale layer-cake stratigraphy as exemplified in
the Solway basin. Here, the dominant fine-grained mature sandstones above the local basal reg breccias
suggest water-reworking of wind-transported sediment, as in the northern part of the Lake Chad basin.
Growth faulting occurs in places in the Solway basin, caused by underlying evaporite movement, but these
faults did not significantly affect pre-late Triassic sedimentation and did not expose pre-Permian units above
the basal breccias. There is no evidence of post-early Permian rifting anywhere during deposition of the late
Permian to middle Triassic British succession although the succession is often interpreted with a rift-basin
model. The arid to hyperarid palaeoclimate changed little during deposition of the Solway basin succession,
in contrast to Lakes Eyre and Chad: and this is attributed to tectonic and palaeolatitude stability. Unlike the
later Mesozoic- Cenozoic, only limited plate movements took place during the Triassic in western Europe,
palaeolatitude changed little, and the Solway Basin remained in the northern latitudinal desert belt from
early to mid-Triassic times. However, the influence of the early Triassic impoverished biota on environmental
interpretations needs further study.
© 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction predominantly on eroded Proterozoic to Carboniferous orogens - net

An intracontinental basin is a sedimentary basin on continental
crust within a continent, whatever the age (intracratonic basins rest
on Precambrian cratons, while the more general term epicontinental
is used for basins on a continent or a continental shelf). The post-
Variscan basins of Western Europe are intracontinental basins resting
⁎ Fax: +886 6 2 27 3493.
E-mail address: mbrookfi@earth.sinica.edu.tw.
additions to continental crust during continental collisions (Dewey,
1982). They consist of early rift basins truncated by overlying saucer-
shaped complex basins, the combination having the typical ‘steers-
head’ geometry, and originate by cooling and subsidence of litho-
sphere after initial uplift, rifting and erosion over hot upper mantle
(McKenzie, 1978; Ziegler, 1990). Intrabasinal differential movements,
however, give rise to sub-basins and swells in almost all such basins
(Hartley and Allen, 1994; Russell and Gurnis, 1994; Cohen, 2003, p.41).
The Solway Basin is a small part of the extensive post-rifting late
Permian to late Triassic desert basin complex which stretched from

0037-0738/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.sedgeo.2008.06.003
28 M.E. Brookfield / Sedimentary Geology 210 (2008) 27–47

Fig. 1. Early Triassic palaeogeography of the North Atlantic with location of Solway Basin (modified from Ziegler, 1990) with location on western equatorial globe reconstruction for
the mid-Triassic (240 ma, Anisian) (courtesy Ron Blakey).

North America to Central Europe (Fig. 1). The basin fill reflects thermal
subsidence at the end of spreading in the early Permian Greenland-
Norwegian- British rifts. It cuts cross the structures and trends of the
underlying Lower Permian rift basins (Brookfield, 1980; Ziegler, 1990;
Newman, 1999), and it predates the younger late Triassic-Jurassic
rifting phase which began the opening of the Central Atlantic Ocean
(Manspeizer, 1988). The succession also has a unique association of
clay minerals that has defied satisfactory explanation for many years
(Jeans, 2006). The Solway Basin stretches from Carlisle to the Isle of
Man and is mostly now underwater (Fig. 2). In the easternmost
onshore part (known as the Carlisle Basin), the latest Permian to
Triassic succession consists of a relatively uniform blanket of
predominantly sub-mature, very fine-grained red clastics deposited
in a variety of arid to hyperarid environments (Akhurst et al., 1997;
Newman, 1999; Brookfield, 2004; Holliday et al., 2004). The lower-
most fine-grained deposits contain continental and disputably marine
floras and faunas attributed to the late Permian (Stoneley, 1958;
Clarke, 1965; Pattison, 1970), while the overlying continental red beds
pass upwards into latest Triassic (Rhaetian) marine mudstones
(Warrington et al., 1980).
Numerous hydrocarbon discoveries have been made in equivalent
strata in the East Irish Sea Basin (Jackson and Mulholland, 1993;
Quirk et al., 1999) and there are many recent studies on the subsur-
face late Permian to Triassic succession in the Irish Sea (e.g. Barnes
et al., 1994; Mitchie and Bowden, 1994; Akhurst et al., 1997; Herries
and Cowan, 1997). Very little, however, has been published on the

Fig. 2. A: Geological map of Solway basin Carlisle Basin with cited localities and location of seismic lines.
 M.E. Brookfield / Sedimentary Geology 210 (2008) 27–47 29

onshore surface exposures in the Solway Basin since 1942 except Table 1
Stratigraphic terminology for Solway Basin and adjacent areas: West Cumbria from
for recent summaries of the outcrop and borehole stratigraphy
Akhurst et al. (1997), East Irish Sea from Jackson et al. (1995)
(Barrett, 1942; Holliday et al., 2001; Brookfield, 2004; Holliday et al.,
2004).
The aim of this paper is to summarize the palaeoenvironments of
the Solway Basin and compare it with its close analogues, the younger
and still active Quaternary arid to hyperarid parts of the intraconti-
nental Mesozoic-Recent Lake Eyre and Lake Chad basins; and
conversely, to illustrate the importance of arid to hyperarid (as
opposed to semi-arid) basin sedimentology in interpreting many
other ancient intracontinental non-marine basins. Arid basins have a
precipitation/potential evapotranspiration ratio (P/PET) of 0.05 to 0.2
and mean annual rainfall of 25-200 mm. while hyperarid basins are
true deserts with a (P/PET) ratio of less than 0.05, where rainfall is
extremely low (less than 25 mm/year) and unpredictable in space and
time, and where in some years there is no precipitation at all (Grove,
1977; UNEP, 1992). The Sahara desert contains nearly 70 per cent of
the present hyperarid areas on Earth (UNEP, 1992). Though hyperar-
idity can not be directly determined for ancient sediments, criteria
indicating very low rainfall and very low P/PET ratios can, such as the
scarcity or absence of plant and animal remains, and the absence of
palaeosols. The entire Lake Eyre basin is mostly within the 250 mm/yr.
isohyet and arid to semi-arid. However, the entire central part of the
basin, including Lake Eyre and the lower parts of its northern and
eastern tributaries is within the 100 mm/yr isohyet, has a P/PET ratio
of 0.03 and is thus arid to hyperarid (Kotwicki, 1986). The Lake Chad
basin similarly varies from wet in the south to hyperarid in the north.
The entire northern desert area (including the Bodele depression) is
hyperarid, with average rainfall of b20 mm/year and a P/PET ratio of
0.001 (Eugster and Maglione, 1979; Maley, 1981). Both the Lake Eyre
and Lake Chad basins have complex sub-basin development but have
accumulated relatively thin sedimentary successions controlled
primarily by slow tectonic subsidence and climate, with the alterna-
tion of periodic large but shallow megalakes with dry desert
Radiometric dating of biostratigraphic units from Menning (1995) and Gradstein et al.
conditions during the Quaternary (DeVogel et al., 2004; Schuster
(2004), modified with Hounslow and McIntosh (2003) and Ovtcharova et al. (2006).
et al., 2005). Note that the Spathian occupies 6 ma out of the total 8 ma for the Early Triassic.

2. Stratigraphy

Brookfield (2004) summarized the history of study, the outcrop
stratigraphy of the onshore Carlisle Basin, while Holliday et al. (2004)
summarized the evolution of the entire Solway basin. Only limited
seismic and borehole information, however, has been published on
the subsurface Solway Basin and adjacent areas (Chadwick et al., 1995;
Jackson et al., 1995; Holliday et al., 2001, 2004).
Unconformably above the Lower Permian desert rift basins, the
late Permian to Late Triassic Solway succession is surprisingly
consistent vertically and horizontally both within the basin and
further afield in the East Irish Sea Basin (Table 1) (Chadwick et al.,
1995; Jackson et al., 1995; Akhurst et al., 1997). The Cumbrian Coastal
Group begins with a very thin and variable breccia and sandstone unit
(Basal Clastics) less than 10 metres thick, which is present wherever
pre-Permian bedrock is exposed, but is absent above the Lower
Permian aeolian Penrith sandstones and correlative units. The breccia
passes rapidly up into a relatively thick fine-grained gypsum/
anhydrite evaporite and red shale unit (Eden Shales) which is up to
180 metres thick in boreholes, though only the upper clastic part is
exposed at outcrop due to solution removal of the evaporites. In
boreholes in the Vale of Eden, to the southeast, four main gypsum/
anhydrite levels can be identified (Meyer, 1965, Fig. 2). These pass
southwest, in the centre of the East Irish Sea basin, into a halite-
dominated successions (e.g. borehole 112/25A-1, Fig. 2) (Jackson et al.,
1987). The Eden Shales pass gradually up into thick tabular, fine-
grained sandstones, known as the Sherwood Sandstone Group in the
subsurface where they are up to 850 metres thick. At outcrop, the
dominantly fluvial Annan Sandstone Formation is sharply overlain by
the dominantly aeolian Kirklinton Sandstone Formation (Brookfield,
2004; Holliday et al., 2004). The Kirklinton Sandstone Formation is
relatively sharply overlain by a second thick very fine-grained unit
with evaporites (Mercia Mudstone Group, known locally as the
Stanwix Shale Formation), with almost no exposures, though up to
725 metres of mudstones and halite occur in boreholes (Newman,
1999). The Stanwix Shale Formation passes gradually up into overlying
fossiliferous marine Upper Triassic (Rhaetic) to Lower Jurassic lime-
stones and shales (Ivimey-Cook et al., 1995). The succession is uni-
form and persistent across the Solway Basin and almost undisturbed
by synsedimentary faults (Fig. 3). Those faults which cut the Sher-
wood Sandstone Group in the subsurface are most likely related to
dissolution and/or migration of the evaporites in the underlying Eden
Shales during deposition of the later Triassic Stanwix Shales since
these faults cut neither the Carboniferous below, nor the bulk of the
Stanwix Shales above (Fig. 3) and there are no significant variations in
thickness across the faults until the latest Triassic Stanwix Shales unit
which is also evaporitic (Stuart, 1993; Ruffell and Shelton, 1999;
Holliday et al., 2004). The sandstones throughout the Cumbrian and
Sherwood Sandstone Groups are uniformly moderately to moderately
well sorted, fine to very fine grained quartz arenites and quartzo-
felpathic to sublithic arenites, with only rare medium grained sand
(Brookfield, 2004; see also Akhurst et al., 1997; Meadows, 2006).
Unlike the underlying Lower Permian, there are no marginal alluvial
fan deposits (Brookfield, 1980): all previously described as such
turn out to be thin regolith pavement breccia deposits (Brookfield,
2004).
30 M.E. Brookfield / Sedimentary Geology 210 (2008) 27–47
Fig. 3. Interpreted seismic lines across the Solway Basin (Newman, 1999); location on Fig. 2.
There are still few satisfactory ages and correlations for the late
Permian to Triassic red beds of Western Europe (Menning, 1995). In
the absence of palaeomagnetic reversal data, and lack of plant and
animal fossils, the only way of dating the Solway succession is to
assume that its lithological units correlate with analogous lithological
units to the south, which is the basis for the dating of Table 1.
3. Sedimentology
3.1. Previous work
Of the various stratigraphic units, only the sedimentology of the
Sherwood Sandstone Group has been studied in any detail from
boreholes and seismic sections in the Irish Sea (because it is the main
gas-bearing unit), where the Group consists of fine- to medium-
grained sandstones and rare thin mudstones. The first interpretation
was that the Group was deposited by a major braided river system in a
semi-arid climate (Colter and Barr, 1975). The recognition of thin
aeolian sandstones within the system led to a modified interpretation
in which a semi-arid braided system was periodically covered by
aeolian sheet sands during drier climates (Cowan, 1993). The second
interpretation recognized three units, partly based on sonic logs. A
lower playa mudflat-sheetflood -braided river unit (St Bees Sand-
stone) passes up into a dominantly aeolian fine- to coarse-grained
sandstone unit (Calder Sandstone) which is sharply overlain by a finer
grained, but again dominantly aeolian unit with sheetflood and
braided channel sandstones (Ormskirk Sandstone) (Meadows and
Beach, 1993; Jones and Ambrose, 1994). A convincing case has been
made that the Ormskirk Sandstone is dominated by evaporitic clastic
sabkhas with interbedded aeolian sands (Herries and Cowan, 1997):
an interpretation more in keeping with the lack of biota and
palaeosols and the marine isotopic signature of the sandstones and
of the overlying gypsiferous Mercia Mudstone Group (Greenwood and
Habesch, 1997). Recently Meadows (2006) studied the sequence
architecture of the Ormskirk Sandstone from revised well correlations
in the East Irish Sea Basin. He interpreted the succession as incised
valleys filled with stacked amalgamated fluvial channel sandstones,
based on detrital mineralogical and geochemical correlations of the
units. However, the reconstructed architecture is based on units less
than 20 metres thick in only four wells spaced between 10 and 40 km
apart along a 60 km long section. The heavy mineral and geochemical
correlations of Meadows (2006) could be re-interpreted to outline
broad convex upward fan accumulations instead of incised valleys
since the playa lake sediment surface used as a datum by Meadows
(2006) need not be horizontal. The actual floor of Lake Eyre varies
15 metres in altitude over a similar 60 km section (Bye et al., 1978).
These previous interpretations of the succession, however, are
based primarily on boreholes, which have one advantage in that
petrology can be studied better than at outcrop, but a disadvantage in
that the geometrical relationships of sedimentary strata and struc-
tures can only be inferred from imprecise long wavelength seismic
sections whose resolution, even under ideal circumstances, is
measured in decimetres. Also, in fluvial-aeolian systems it is
impossible to determine bedform and channel type, form and
development without large outcrops, and hence impossible to infer
the character of the system (Miall, 1985; North, 1996).
The following three sections describe the individual lithofacies
(3.2), some of the problems of interpreting these (3.3), and the
lithofacies associations (3.4), which can be compared with cores, and
facies architecture where possible (which can not be adequately
described from cores). I use the dynamic stratigraphic approach of
Aigner (1985): where stratinomic analysis gives the process (deposi-
tional dynamics) that formed individual layers (lithofacies); analysis
of interbedded lithofacies (lithofacies associations) allows environ-
ments to be inferred from the associations of processes; and basin
analysis of the distribution of lithofacies associations (environments)
allows the basin dynamics to be inferred. This method separates the
various scales of stratal development and minimizes jumping to
premature conclusions about environments and basin development.
The methods used are those of Jackson (1975), Allen (1983) and
Miall (1985). Sedimentary layers can be grouped to form hierarchies,
separated by bounding surfaces of various scales, representing packets
of genetically related units (Allen, 1983). The hierarchies of units
represent hierarchies of fluid flow - what Allen (1983) called fluid
 M.E. Brookfield / Sedimentary Geology 210 (2008) 27–47
vector fields. At the lowest scale, individual layers are formed by the
smallest elements of the flow and deposited by the smallest and most
rapidly forming bedforms or microforms, for example current ripples
and planar beds (Jackson, 1975). At the intermediate scale, flow
elements deposit larger bedforms or mesoforms, for example dunes,
which take longer to form and may include the smaller elements. At a
larger scale, flow elements such as individual river channels deposit
even larger bedforms or macroforms, for example, point bars. These
different scales of bedform can be grouped into architectural elements
and interpreted according to their spatial distribution and (inferred)
depositional time scale (Miall, 1985; Todd, 1996).
3.2. Lithofacies
Individual lithofacies are distinguished with the facies code of
Miall (1977) used for easy recognition: several additional code
divisions are required to identify large-scale trough cross-bedded
sandstones (Stl) and inverse graded laminated sandstones (Sli)
interpreted as aeolian lithofacies. The individual lithofacies are
bounded by the 0 to 2nd order bounding surfaces separating laminae,
ripples and dunes (or microforms to mesoforms) (see Miall, 1996).
The character and interpretation of the lithofacies are summarized
on Table 2 and are supported by the brief descriptions and
interpretations below - which are necessary since the succeeding
interpretations depend heavily on the lithofacies interpretations:
simple tabular summaries are inadequate.
3.2.1. Clast-supported limestone breccias (Gp, Gt)
These breccias are dominated by angular to subrounded Carboni-
ferous limestone and basalt clasts and are confined to the Basal
Table 2
Lithofacies and their interpretation
31
Clastics (Brookfield, 2004, Fig. 4). The breccias rarely show any
channeling or cut-and-fill (Brookfield, 2004) (Fig. 4) and only occur
when Carboniferous Limestone immediately underlies, or is adjacent
to, the sediments. The matrices range from quartz arenites to sublithic
arenites, include well-rounded aeolian quartz sand (Fig. 4C) and are
more mature than the dominant quartzo-felpathic to sublithic
arenites of the overlying units (Brookfield, 2004, Fig. 6 - where the
Basal Breccia and Kirklinton Sst symbols are wrongly reversed).
Current directions are also very variable (Fig. 5). There are no quartz
grains coarser than very fine in the Carboniferous limestone, and this
can therefore not supply the very well-rounded medium-grained
quartz sand in the breccias (Fig. 4C).
Modern equivalents of this facies occur around pediment lime-
stone outcrops in the hyperarid Egyptian western desert where
limestone regoliths and far-traveled fine aeolian quartz sand are
reworked by sheetflows after very rare rain storms (personal
observations 2001-2006) (Fig. 4D).
3.2.2. Sand-matrix-supported limestone breccias (Gm)
These breccias differ little from the clast-supported breccias,
except that they have slightly more angular clasts and greater
percentage of fines. They probably represent local mass flows from
the same source. Modern equivalent mass flows mobilized during rare
rainstorms occur around pediments in the hyperarid Egyptian western
desert (Fig. 4D).
3.2.3. Intraclastic (bedrock) massive and parallel laminated tabular fine-
grained granular to fine-grained sandstones (Gsm, GSp)
Like lithofacies 1, these sandstones contain very locally derived
limestone clasts together with mature fine sand, and also represent
32 M.E. Brookfield / Sedimentary Geology 210 (2008) 27–47

Fig. 4. Basal breccias. A: part of section at Kellhead, metre stick for scale; B: Detail of clast-supported breccia with subrounded limestone clasts, 10 cm of scale showing;
C: Photomicrograph (plane polarized light) of breccia matrix, with dominantly silty limestone granules in fine-grained calcareous quartz sand matrix; very well rounded aeolian
coarse sand grain is arrowed; D: modern equivalent of basal breccias - Eocene limestone outcrops weathering and infiltrated by fine wind-blown quartz sand and reworked into local
depressions, Bahariya, western Egyptian desert.

fluvial reworking of local regoliths with the fine quartz sand brought
in from elsewhere. Parallel laminated units and the absence of ripple
and dune cross-bedding in this relatively coarse-grained facies (mean
grain size around 0.5 to 1.5 mm) suggests deposition from thin
sheetfloods under upper flow regime conditions. Pebble clusters with
15 cm. diameter clasts suggest current velocities exceeding 2.0 m.sec- 1
at times (Brayshaw et al., 1983).
3.2.4. Thick-bedded trough cross-bedded (10° to 25° maximum dip) fine-
grained moderately sorted micaceous sandstones, often with mudstone
intraclasts (St)
These occur as thick-bedded individual units up to 1 m thick
forming sets up to 5 m thick, and as the basal parts of sets of trough to
ripple-drift cross-laminated to parallel laminated fine to very fine
grained, moderately sorted sandstones (Fig. 6). Current directions
from the cross-beds are unidirectional with over 90° variability within
individual beds (loc. 23, Fig. 5), and with average flow directions
varying from southeasterly to westerly among beds (locs. 7, 17, 23,
Fig. 5). Intraclastic beds contain angular to rounded red clay pebble
clasts (with fine sand armour) up to 30 cm in diameter (Fig. 7A, B)
which normally rest on strongly current scoured surfaces (Fig. 7C).
Precursors of angular mud clasts of this type can be seen on various
extensive mudcracked surfaces between the sandstones (Fig. 7D) and
analogous surfaces can be found in dried up channels of modern
ephemeral streams (Fig. 7E).
Trough cross-bedded units are formed by migrating three-dimen-
sional dunes during waning flow in channels in modern streams at
mean current velocities during deposition, for the fine sand grain sizes
present, of between about 0.8 to 0.6 m.sec- 1 (Miller et al., 1977; Allen,
1982). The angularity of the mudstone intraclasts indicates very rapid
reworking and deposition of within-channel mudcracked mudstones.
Armoured mudballs (like those of Fig. 7B) frequently develop during
short-lived, intense floods in ephemeral streams (Sholokhov and Tiunov,
2002).
3.2.5. Low angle (less than 10° dip) cross-bedded, parallel laminated
fine-grained moderately sorted micaceous sandstones (SL)
These sandstones occur as individual finely parallel-laminate
tabular beds up to 0.3 m. and as 0.5 m thick beds in sets up to 5 m
thick and form most of the middle parts of the Annan Sandstones
(Fig. 8A). Most beds are lenticular and sometimes convex upwards on
a large scale, may stretch for decimetres along outcrops, and are
separated by reactivation surfaces.
Low angle cross-bedded lenticular sheet sandstones are formed by
progradation of linguoid bars in wide shallow channels or on adjacent
floodplains during floods (Fig. 8B). Reactivation surfaces are formed by
extensive reworking during flood to low-flow transitions or vice versa
(Bridge, 1993).
3.2.6. Ripple drifts cross-laminated fine-grained micaceous sandstones
(Sr)
Ripple-drift trough cross-laminated sandstones occur above
lithofacies 4 and below lithofacies 7 and as separate beds within
finer facies. Ripple wavelengths vary from a few to 20 cm. Ripple-drift
cross-lamination is the result of high rates of traction deposition from
decelerating heavily sediment-charged unidirectional low flow
regime currents (Allen, 1982)., Deposition occurred below current
velocities of around 0.6 to 0.8 m.sec- 1 for the fine sand grain sizes
present (Brayshaw et al., 1983).
3.2.7. Parallel laminated fine-grained micaceous sandstones (Sp)
These occur above lithofacies 6, as multiple and single beds within
thick sandstone beds, and also as thin separate layers within finer silt
and clay facies. Parting lineation is common. There is something of a
 M.E. Brookfield / Sedimentary Geology 210 (2008) 27–47 33

Fig. 5. Palaeocurrents for various localities: all fluvial except Kirklinton Sandstone, loc. 24, which is aeolian cross-bedding.

problem in interpreting these parallel laminated sandstones, as they sand grain sizes present, and parting lineation is characteristic of upper
commonly occur transitionally above ripple-drift cross-laminated units flow plane beds. These parallel laminated sandstones were probably
suggesting deposition under lower flow regime plane bed transport deposited as upper flow regime plane beds in highly sediment-charged
(Allen, 1982). However, there is no such stability field at the mean fine shallow flows during waning floods (Todd, 1996).

Fig. 6. Lithofacies 4 (St). A) Trough cross-bedded, parallel laminated fine-grained sandstones; B) Photomicrograph of Annan Sandstone (loc. 21) showing fine-grained well-sorted
rounded to angular quartz grains.
34 M.E. Brookfield / Sedimentary Geology 210 (2008) 27–47

Fig. 7. Mudcracks, mudballs and scours: A) angular clay clasts from mudcracks; B) armored mudballs at base of sandstone (armour is only fine sand); C) regular scour pit moulds
(on base of sandstone) formed around eroded mud clasts; D) mudcracked mudstone with cracks infilled with overlying sandstone; E) modern mudcracked surface in semiarid
ephemeral stream, Sahara desert, Mauritania. A,B,C, D, from Annan Sandstone, Cove quarry, loc. 8. Camera lens cap is 8 cm diameter.

3.2.8. Wavy and irregularly cross-laminated, very fine-grained
micaceous sandstones (Sw)
These occur in the upper parts of the Kirklinton Sandstone where
very fine-grained low-angle cross-bedded feldspathic arenites, in 5 to
20 cm thick lenticular units, show abundant small-scale cut-and-fill
with small angular red mudstone clasts occasionally lining their bases.
They also occur irregularly interbedded with siltstones and mudstones
(Fl) throughout the Eden and Stanwix Shales, forming flaser and wavy
bedded units. Current directions from the low-angle cross bedding are
vary between southeast and west. Lithofacies 8 is very different from
the superficially similar lithofacies 6 (Sr), being altogether on a much
smaller scale with abundant complex small-scale scour-and-fills with
small angular mudstone chips. A few rare surface exposures have
small symmetrical wave ripples of small wavelength.
At first sight, much of this facies looks like an aeolian sand drift
facies. However, the presence of clay clasts and fine mica, lack of well-

Fig. 8. Lithofacies 5 (Sl). A) low angle cross-bedded, parallel laminated fine sandstones (Brampton Old Quarry, loc. 33); B) Warburton river east of Lake Eyre during waning flood
showing low relief bars.
 M.E. Brookfield / Sedimentary Geology 210 (2008) 27–47
rounded medium sand (present in facies 9), and wave ripples, is more
indicative of shallow and irregular water flow. Wavy and flaser-
bedding is typical of frequent alternations of current velocity, and is
characteristic of reversing currents in tidal situations (Reineck and
Wunderlich, 1968), though such alternations can also occur with
repetitive and divergent shallow flows (sheetfloods) on floodplains
and sabkhas (Martin, 2000). The short wavelength symmetrical
ripples suggest wave action in very shallow water. The lack of any
evidence of subaerial exposure (such as mudcracks and palaeosols)
and lack of trace fossils is curious but may indicate hypersaline
conditions. This facies was formerly attributed to sheetfloods on the
distal parts of fans where they interfinger with aeolian and playa basin
facies (Cowan, 1993; Meadows and Beach, 1993). Herries and Cowan
(1997) re-interpreted it as a sabkha facies which seems more likely,
especially in view of its association with evaporite-bearing lithofacies
(Elm).
3.2.9. Small to large-scale trough cross-bedded moderately to well-sorted
non-micaceous fine-grained sandstones (Stl)
These are confined to the Kirklinton Sandstones where they consist
of moderate reddish orange, subangular to subrounded, fine to rarely
medium grained sublithic arenites and subarkoses, with no mica and
no clays clasts (Fig. 9). These sandstones are coarser and slightly more
poorly sorted than the trough and parallel laminated sandstones of
lithotypes 4 and 5 (Brookfield, 2004). Rare internal bounding surfaces
of variable inclinations form sets between 2 and 5 metres thick and
bound variably orientated asymptotic cross-stratified beds. Palaeo-
winds from the foresets are very variable, ranging from SSW through
SE to NE (Fig. 5, loc. 24).
The cross-bedding, together with the absence of mica and clay
clasts, and presence of well-rounded medium sand, indicates wind
deposition; while the variably orientated bounding surfaces with
trough cross-beds, lack of obvious grain flow and dominance of
grainfall (?) and rippleform strata, the fine grain size and lack of coarse
lags suggest deposition by three-dimensional coalescing bedforms
(without erosional interdunes) in which slipfaces are a minor part of
the system (Brookfield, 1979). The lack of grainflow strata, even in the
smaller units, may be due to variable winds reworking slipfaces. And
this is also indicated by the palaeowind pattern from the large-scale
cross-beds (Fig. 5, loc.24) which is trimodal: such patterns occur in
complex linear dune fields (Fryberger, 1979).
3.2.10. Parallel laminated micaceous silty sandstones and sandy
siltstones (SSip)
These occur throughout the succession, usually interbedded with
facies 8, 11, and 12. They consist of fine- to very fine- grained, poorly
Fig. 9. Lithofacies 9 (Stl). A) smaller scale cross-bedded fine-grained sandstone (River Eden, loc. 26); B) thin section of fine-grained moderately well-sorted sublithic arenite, angular to
well-rounded (arrowed) quartz grains, lamina shown by black line (River Eden, loc 26).
35
sorted silty sandstones and sandy siltstones with muscovite flakes
lining laminae (Table 2). Parallel laminated silty sandstones and
siltstones represent traction deposits of shallow gentle water flows
(low flow regime). Facies 10 is different from the finely laminated
aeolian sandstones described from cores of the Ormskirk Sandstone in
boreholes from the Irish Sea (Herries and Cowan, 1997) which consist
of very regularly laminated finely-striped clean sandstones inter-
preted as climbing translatent strata formed by wind ripples (Hunter,
1977).
3.2.11. Irregularly laminated sandy and silty gypsiferous mudstones and
mudstones (Fl)
These occur as thicker units inter-bedded with facies 10 and 12
within the Eden and Stanwix Shales (Table 2) (Fig. 10A) and have rare
small molds and nodules of copper carbonate (Brookfield, 2004). The
sediments very rarely show disrupted plasmic and clotted textures
typical of soils (FitzPatrick, 1993) (Fig. 10B) and in cores contain lenses,
rosettes and nodules of gypsum (Holliday et al., 2001). The plasmic
and clotted textures and the absence of any other soil characteristics
such as rootlet casts and horizonation suggests disruption by solution
of evaporites rather than by organisms, although some of the clay
aggregates may have been transported as clay pellets as in Cooper
Creek, central Australia (Nanson et al., 1986). The sandy lenses,
especially those containing well-rounded coarse sand, have been
interpreted elsewhere as wind-laid deposits on irregular water-laid
silty mudstones with an irregular surface possibly disturbed by salt
efflorescence (Akhurst et al., 1997). The combination of massive
gypsiferous mudstones and irregular wind-deposited lenses suggests
a saline sabkhas like those now forming on the coasts of the Arab
Emirates (Alsharhan and Kendall, 2003). The lack of preserved
desiccation structures such as mudcracks (common in lithofacies 12
below) is a puzzle but the sediment surface is frequently stabilized by
algal mats in such environments (Noffke et al., 2003), or saline
porewaters may have limited desiccation contraction. Similar sedi-
ments form in both marine sabkhas and at the margins of fluctuating
saline lakes, where the alternate growth and solution of evaporites
gives cracked, puffy, ‘popcorn’ textures (Fig. 10C).
3.2.12. Interbedded massive reddish brown siltstone and mudstone (Fm)
These often form mud-cracked clay drapes on top of stacked
tabular sandstones of lithofacies 5, and form thicker units, sometimes
filling large channels associated with lithofacies 4, 6, and 7 (see facies
association 3). Alternating desiccation cracked mudstones and
siltstones indicate suspension deposition in quiet water followed by
drying out. The absence of the evaporitic characteristics of lithofacies
11 (Fl) suggests fluvial environments above saline groundwater levels.
36 M.E. Brookfield / Sedimentary Geology 210 (2008) 27–47
Fig. 10. Lithofacies 10 (Ssip), 11 (Fl) and 12 (Fm).A) detail of pelletal mudstone (Cadgill Burn, loc. 59); B) section of pelleted sandy, silty mudstone; C) puffy pelletal evaporitic
mudstone, brackish Lake Sitra ,Qattara Depression, Egypt.
3.2.13. Gypsum/anhydrite (Elm)
Persistent beds of variously nodular and laminated anhydrite,
partially or completely hydrated to gypsum, occur in the lower 30 m of
the Eden Shales in boreholes, but have been dissolved at outcrop
(Meyer, 1965; Holliday et al., 2001). The best descriptions are from the
four main evaporite horizons in the Vale of Eden boreholes
(Arthurton, 1971; Arthurton and Hemingway, 1972; Burgess and
Holliday, 1974; Arthurton and Wadge, 1981). These contain various
evaporitic types ranging from algal mat anhydrite through layered
anhydrite to laminated anhydrite. Several beds show cyclical alterna-
tions of these types suggestive of upward-deepening (Arthurton,
1971). Gypsum is precipitated as an evaporite mineral in hypersaline
conditions and as nodular and lensitic beds by saline groundwaters.
The interbedding with fine clastics deposited by thin sheet flows and
with adhesion and desiccation structures indicates a sabkha to
shallow hypersaline environment (Schreiber and El Tabakh, 2000).
3.3. Problems of interpretation
First, the uniformly fine-grained nature of the sandstones tends
to limit the variety of fluvial bedforms possible to ripples and
upper plane beds, with only limited dune cross-bedding (Allen, 1982,
Figs. 2–4, 7-4; Mantz, 1978). Also, the effects of high suspended
sediment concentration on bedform development are poorly known,
though there is some evidence that high concentrations suppress
bedform development due to increased viscosities and dampened
turbulence (Best, 1996). The dominant ripple-drift cross-lamination
(and minor dune cross-bedding) in the sandstones may have been
formed by three-dimensional bedforms in sediment-laden, shallow,
vigorous and turbulent, rather than deep and weak, flows (Allen, 1982;
Dade and Friend, 1998). Plotting the mean grain sizes of the sandstone
lithofacies on a Hjulstrom diagram shows that most of the sand would
be in suspension in even relatively slowly moving flows of 0.5 m/sec.
or less, and the Solway sand grain size ranges are those most readily
eroded. Both experimental studies and field observations of the
transport and deposition of such fine-grained sediments are rare,
which makes hydrodynamic interpretation of the lithofacies difficult
(Reid and Frostick, 1987).
Second, the scarcity of medium and coarse sand is difficult to
explain since such sand is abundant in underlying and adjacent
Carboniferous and earlier sandstone bedrock, and the large mud
intraclasts in the channel sandstones suggests that velocities were
more than capable of transporting it. Medium and coarse sands must
have somehow been removed before deposition of the sands of the
Solway Basin. Recent basins with bedrock drainages always have
coarser sand particles in fluvial deposits: even the recent arid Lake
Eyre basin in central Australia has ephemeral streams carrying in
coarse sand from sources over 500 kilometres away (Bourke and
Pickup, 1999). So, some way of removing the coarser grains is required.
The only way of doing this fluvially is to have a lake in which coarser
sediment can be trapped. Such an analogy still does not explain the
fine sand means of the Permo-Triassic sandstones and breccia
matrices, because silt and clay are more likely to be the main
sediment transported further by such a system. However, wind can
readily separate various grain sizes, with fine sand and coarse silt
(loess) being deposited in different areas (e.g. the Loess plateau of
northern China - Chen, Li and Zhang, 1991) than coarse sand lags (e.g.
the Selima Sand Sheet in Egypt - Maxwell and Haynes, 2000) and with
finer dust being removed entirely from the system. These fine sands
and coarse silts can then be reworked by local rains in an internally
drained system (e.g. Orfeo, 1999); especially as fine sand in the 0.1 to
0.05 mm range is the most mobile grain size (Miller et al., 1977). Such a
wind-dominated system now operates in the western Egyptian
Sahara; though this area is currently only at the erosional piedmont
stage (El-Baz et al., 2000). A closer analogue may be the northern Lake
Chad basin (Bodele depression) or the southern Gobi desert area of
western China where ephemeral streams drain basins entirely
composed of wind-blown fine sand and silt (Pye, 1987) and where
finer dust is transported further (Goudie and Middleton, 2001).
Third, due to solution of evaporites at outcrop, diagenetic features
have to be studied from borehole cores. Such diagenetic features are
important since early diagenesis involved the precipitation of
anhydrite cements in the Basal Clastics and sandy units of the Eden
Shales, and dolomite in the St Bees and Calder Sandstones (Annan and
Kirklinton Sandstone equivalents). These early events were followed
by the formation of authigenic quartz, K-felspar and albite (Strong
et al., 1994). In the northeastern Irish Sea boreholes, the breccias and
sandstones now have significant (20-25%) secondary porosity caused
by solution of the early evaporitic cements (Strong, 1993). And
solution of evaporites probably also accounts for some of the
disrupted structure of some units of the Eden Shales and the late
Triassic normal faulting.
Fourth, the lack of body and trace fossils is very significant since.
Even in arid to semi-arid ephemeral stream - lacustrine systems,
Recent biotas readily colonize the environments during rare favour-
able periods (Timms, 2001) and caliche soils are well developed
(Retallack, 2005). For example, a relatively diverse macro-invertebrate
fauna and flora (including gastropods, bivalves, arthropods and algae)
colonizes the lower reaches of the rivers entering Lake Eyre during
and after floods (Madden et al., 2002; Costelloe et al., 2005). This lack
of fossils and palaeosols (even in fine-grained facies) is the best
evidence for a hyperarid as opposed to an arid or wetter system (see
palaeoclimate section). Conditions during deposition of the Solway
basin sediments appeared to have been so extreme over such a large
 M.E. Brookfield / Sedimentary Geology 210 (2008) 27–47
area that temporary colonization by organisms from outside during
rare favourable conditions was practically never possible. At present,
the arid-hyperarid transition on Earth marks a shift from biotic to
largely abiotic conditions (Warren-Rhodes et al., 2006). Under
hyperarid conditions, biological effects, silicate transformations and
leaching loss are no longer the dominant forces in pedogenesis. While
in semiarid to arid soils, carbonate retention increases with decreasing
rainfall due to decreased leaching in generally biotic soils (Retallack,
2005), in hyperarid soils, carbonate retention decreases with decreas-
ing rainfall and nitrate increases (Ewing et al., 2006). These trends are
the result of the near-absence of both biology and dissolved losses in
hyperarid soils, making them fundamentally different from other soils
on Earth. Such hyperarid processes may also help in the interpretation
of the peculiar clay mineral assemblages of these early Triassic
sediments which are dominated by ferric (?pedogenic) and recycled
micas with minor Fe-rich chlorite (Jeans, 2006).
3.4. Lithofacies associations and lithofacies architecture
Many of the lithofacies occur in repetitive associations which
define specific environments and sub-environments. Generally, the
lithofacies associations are defined on vertical associations and can be
defined without the large two- and three-dimensional outcrops
required for lithofacies architecture. Strata between bounding
surfaces are adequately covered by the terms laminae, foreset, set
and coset of McKee and Weir (1953).
3.4.1. Tabular limestone breccia and granular sandstone association
This association consists of lithofacies 1, 2, and 3, in generally fining
upwards units (Brookfield, 2004). It is confined to the Basal Clastics
unit and shows extreme vertical and lateral variability of coarser
clastics in very small areas, which indicates very small, local systems
of sediment transport and deposition (Fig. 4). The thicker breccia
association at Kellhead has up to 11 main units separated by major
bounding surfaces (Brookfield, 2004). Here, current directions from
the two main sets of cross-beds in unit 1 are towards the northeast
and south-east (Fig. 5, loc. 2). This is at right angles to the adjacent
fluvial flow patterns higher up, but is consistent with local derivation
from a limestone outcrop formerly quarried a mere 20 m to the west.
One section of the top 5 metres is well-enough exposed for beds and
bounding surfaces to be traced and their variability to be evaluated
(Fig. 11). The sets of tabular sheet breccia units are cut by one low-
relief channel (unit 2) and represent very local sheetflood deposits
with only local channeling.
Modern equivalents of facies association 1 occur in the low-relief,
hyperarid areas of the Sahara where sporadic limestone basement
outcrops supply angular clasts to be locally reworked by very rare
rainstorms (El-Baz et al., 2000; pers. obs. 2001 - 2005) (Fig. 5D).
3.4.2. Multistorey trough cross-bedded intraclastic sandstone (St) -
tabular sandstone (Sl) - thin sandstone-siltstone-mudstone associations
(SSip, Fm)
This association dominates the middle part of the Annan
Sandstones and it was formerly extensively quarried for building
stone, so a number of large (though mostly overgrown) sections are
Fig. 11. Lithofacies association 1. Basal Clastics at Kellhead. Units 1 to 4 of planar to low-angle cross-laminated beds are separated by major bounding surfaces (bold). Minor channeling
occurs below unit 2.
37
available where multiple sandstone sets can be up to five metres thick
(Fig. 12A,B). The vertical sections show repetitions of relatively thick
cycles. Intraclastic trough cross-bedded fine-grained sandstones of
lithofacies 4(St), often with erosional bases and very divergent
palaeocurrents are overlain by multistory cosets of large-scale over-
lapping lensitic thick tabular low-angle cross-bedded parallel-lami-
nated slightly finer-grained sandstones of lithofacies 5 (Sl) with
consistent southward palaeocurrents (Fig. 12A, B). Individual sets in
both are draped by thin silty mudstones (Fm) and lithofacies 5 (Sl) is
overlain by fine-grained facies of lithofacies 7, 10 and 12 (Sp, Ssip, Fm)
at 5- 10 metre intervals (Fig. 12A, B). Lithofacies 5 (Sl) may also
dominate entire decimetre-thick quarry sections as at Brampton
(Fig. 8A), or may be almost absent as in the lower parts of Cove
Quarry where the associations is transitional to facies association 3
(Fig. 12A).
There are basically only three main types of bounding surface.
Major bounding surfaces are draped by thicker units of very fine-
grained facies (Fig. 12A at 25 metres and 14B at 10 metres). Less
extensive bounding surfaces are gently convex-up surfaces which: a)
separate trough cross-bedded (St) sets, intersect, and pass into
conformable laminations (Fig. 13A); and b) enclose lensitic tabular
sets of low angle cross bedded parallel laminated sandstones (Sl)
representing lateral and downstream accretion on low-relief bars
(circles on Fig. 13C). Very rare tabular foresets draped with silty
mudstones possibly represent bar migration into ponds during
waning flow, as described by Stanistreet and Stollhofen (2002) from
the Namib desert, SW Africa. Rare current reversals in lithofacies 5 (Sl)
may originate in the same way. On the other hand, the rare occurrence
of high-angle cross-bedding, the dominance of low-angle cross-
bedding and the abundance of ripple-drift cross-lamination closely
resemble the linguoid bars of fine sand described by Williams (1971)
from ephemeral streams entering Lake Eyre from the west.
In the Irish Sea boreholes, such multistory fluvial units (there
interbedded with minor aeolian sandstones) were interpreted as the
deposits of a permanent westward flowing river system (Herries and
Cowan, 1997). However, such a system necessitates a high water table
and would also involve significant overbank flooding, deposition of
crevasse-splay and other floodplain facies, some reduction of ferric
iron at least in abandoned channels, and more pertinently some
organic life - none of which are present in the Annan Sandstones.
Two major peculiarities need explaining for this Annan Sandstone
facies association 2. First, it basically does not change in character at
outcrop across the entire northeastern Carlisle Basin, a distance of
40 kilometres, and from seismic and borehole records the main unit
does not change significantly over thousands of square kilometres. Is
this due to almost basin-wide fluvial changes or to overlapping facies
lenses? Second, fine overbank facies are very rare, as is any sign of
much channeling at the decimetre-scale and persistent (at outcrop
scale) thin tabular units of finer facies separate the main multistory
fluvial units. Though reworking of floodplain sediments can be
invoked to explain the scarcity of silt and clay, there is no evidence
of channeling above the metre-scale which occurs in modern
ephemeral streams carrying fine sediment (Reid and Frostick, 1997;
Tooth, 2000). Most of the fine sediment was carried away to be
deposited in facies associations 3 and 4.
38 M.E. Brookfield / Sedimentary Geology 210 (2008) 27–47

Fig. 12. Lithofacies associations in vertical section of Annan Sandstones with lithofacies labeled (arrows are cross-bedding palaeocurrent directions with north at top -see direction
cross at bottom right). Lithofacies association 2: A) Cove Quarry section (loc. 8); B) Glinger Burn section (locs. 88-94). Lithofacies association 3: C) Lower Annan Sandstones (Annan
River section, loc. 3), 5 fining upwards channels in top 5 metres,; D) Warmanbie Quarry section (loc.5), note mudstone-filled channels at 2 - 4 metres; E) River cliff (loc. 3), inferred
bank collapse below clay drape.

The overwhelming dominance of fine sands suggest deposition
from thin sheet flows in very wide and shallow fluvial channels or on
very widely inundated flood plains. Large floods sporadically occur in
both African and Australian deserts and are responsible for most of the
deposition outside channels in the lower reaches of the streams. For
example, enormous floods extend for tens to hundreds of kilometres
out from lowland ephemeral streams feeding Lake Eyre in Australia
and Lake Chad in Africa (Durand, 1995; Tooth, 1999). They occur where
channelized flow ceases and floodwaters spill across adjacent alluvial
surfaces to eventually dissipate into dune fields, sabkhas or playas
(Bull, 1997: Tooth, 1999).
The change from channels with very divergent palaeocurrents to
more uniform unchannellized flow can be inferred for the streams
draining into the eastern part of Lake Eyre, Central Australia (Kotwicki,
1986). There, during a major flooding of Cooper Creek in 1974,
floodwaters extended over the floodplains and playas for a width of
60 kilometres and the discharge was 4000 m3.sec- 1 at a mean flow
velocity of 0.85 m3.sec- 1 at Innamincka with a depth of 16 metres in
the deepest section of the channel. The result was that the flooded
are was covered with unidirectional linguoid bars, underlain and
overlain by anastomosing channels formed during less extreme con-
ditions which reworked a small part of the floodplain sediments
 M.E. Brookfield / Sedimentary Geology 210 (2008) 27–47 39

Fig. 13. Lithofacies association 2. Facies architecture. A: River Lynne bank face (loc. 23); B) Cove Quarry lower face (loc. 8); C) Old Brampton Quarry face (loc. 33). Major throughgoing
bounding surfaces (circled): in B) and C) often with clay drapes and cut less important bounding surfaces without clay drapes. Thin lines are low-angle laminations with arrows
showing dip directions, north at top (see right of ‘B’). Alignment of quarry surfaces shown above faces in degrees.

(Fig.14A). Such deposits cover vast areas northeast and east of Lake Eyre,
and are deposited by many ephemeral streams in which wide flood-
plains and playas alternate (Fig. 14B). The inferred result being the
alternation of channelized, multistory sand and finer-grained units seen
in facies association 2. However, the overbank mud facies is much less
prominent in the Solway Triassic compared with the Lake Eyre basin.
Apart from a facies architecture analogous to that inferred for the
area north and east of Lake Eyre, facies association 2 resembles, in
decreasing order of study and knowledge, the flood deposits of the
1965 major Bijou Creek flood in Colorado (McKee et al., 1967), the
laminated sheets sands described by Tunbridge (1981) and the
deposits of ephemeral streams draining the area northeast of Lake
Chad (Durand, 1995; personal observations in 2001-2005). The Bijou
flood spread extensive locally thick deposits over the adjacent
floodplain, dominated by parallel laminated sands in flat to low-
angle beds up to about 50 cm. thick, which were deposited by thin,
upper flow regime flows. In the channels, sediments were dominantly
trough cross-bedded, ripple-drift cross-laminated and parallel lami-
nated sands, up to 50 cm. thick, with minor tabular cross-laminated
units with dips up to 25°, deposited by migrating dunes and bars.
These flood deposits of sand, up to 4 metres thick, were deposited in
only a few hours. Bijou Creek sands, however, include coarse and
medium sands not found in this study, and the geometry of sets could
not be observed.
The cyclical variations of facies association 2 could be caused by
intrinsic changes in the basin, such as sporadic flooding and lateral
migration of channels, or by base-level changes due to fluctuations in
lake levels. The former case is the standard interpretation of such
cycles. In the latter case, major floods gradually extend the lake,
causing deepening in river channels and the deposition of successively
more extensive overbank deposits. The major cycles vary from a few to
over 25 metres and show no consistent thickness variation. Under
uniform subsidence and channel migration, they should be at least
within one order of magnitude. If the latter lake level concept applies,
then synchronous changes should occur throughout the basin, with
sporadic megafloods causing filling and extension of playa lakes and
deposition of extensive correlatable fine-grained facies units. There is
no data available at present to test this idea, which requires very good
temporal correlation currently unobtainable in the strata here.
Facies association 2 is practically identical to those described from
some fluvial and deltaic facies in the Mesozoic of the western U.S.A.
(Miall, 1988a,b; Stephens, 1994; North and Taylor, 1996) where, as
here: a) there is no obvious large-scale cyclicity, b) there is no gradual
decrease in flow energy, individual depositional units are capped
abruptly by thin mud drapes, c) there is no extensive ‘overbank’ facies,
and d) most deposition occurred on lateral, oblique and downstream
macroforms analogous to accreting bars (Bridge, 1993). Other ancient
fluvial clastics with identical geometries (including steepening set
inclinations and intersecting low angle sets) were described by Willis
(1993) and compared with simulated point bar models.
3.4.3. Fining upwards intraclastic sandstone - mudstone association
Fining upwards sets of intraclastic and trough cross-bedded to
ripple-drift cross-laminated to parallel laminated sandstones of
40 M.E. Brookfield / Sedimentary Geology 210 (2008) 27–47
Fig. 14. Modern analogues of lithofacies association 2: A) floodplain of Cooper Creek, east of Lake Eyre showing extensive bars separated by anastomosing channels; B) alternating
playa and braided/anastomosing reaches of Eyre Creek and Diamantina Creek, about 100 km NW of Copper Creek., arrow show creek flow directions. Inset shows Solway Basin (Fig. 2)
to same scale.
lithofacies 4, 6, 7, and 8 (St, Sr, Sp and Sw) are interbedded with
relatively thick very fine silty and sandy lithofacies 10, 11, and 12 (Ssip,
Fl, Fm). Associations of this type (with individual channel sandstone
units less than three metres thick) are typical of the lower and upper
parts of the Annan Sandstones (Fig. 12C) and are thus transitional (if
Walther's Law applies) between facies associations 2 and 4: such
transitions can be seen in the lower part of Cove Quarry (Fig. 12A at
10 metres). Occasional channels filled with fine-grained facies occur
(Fig. 12D), and there are signs of contemporaneous channel bank
collapse in places (Fig. 12E).
The regular vertical facies change within each tabular sand unit
marks individual depositional (possibly flood) events with strong
scouring changing to rapid deposition from waning sediment-charged
flows. In most modern environments, this association is characteristic
of seasonal fluvial systems with well-defined migrating channels
separated by, and cutting into, extensive overbank deposits (Bristow,
1996). However, the regular tabular units often persist laterally,
without the low-angle inclined surfaces and lateral variation found in
such bars (Willis, 1993) and current directions among units are very
divergent (Fig. 12C). Furthermore, the individual associations are less
than 3 metres (and often less than one metre) thick, which indicates
the maximum channel depth. This, plus the thinness of the channel
units, the scarcity of multistory channel units (only three occur in
Fig. 13C) and the abundance of large angular mudstone clasts in
almost all channels (rapidly reworked and deposited from desicca-
tion-cracked mudstones) suggest that each sandstone was the result
of one flood, rather than a gradually migrating channel. Rarely, tabular
units of trough cross-bedded sandstones without mudstone laminae
and interbeds suggest migrating dunes in major channels while
the interbedded fine-grained facies (10,11,and 12) have the character-
istics of saline sabkhas rather than fluvial floodplains (Thompson and
Meadows, 1997).
Small channel- sabkha associations of this type occur in both
marginal marine and lacustrine hypersaline environments such as the
Emirate coast of the Persian Gulf, Lake Eyre in Australia, and the Chott
Rharsa in Tunisia (Magee et al., 1995; Alsharhan and Kendall, 2003;
Swezey, 2003). In these, relative changes of water (sea or lake) level,
caused by tides, seiches, storms and floods, control sabkha aggrada-
tion and channel cutting. Without accurate dating it is impossible to
decide whether the changes seen in facies association 3 are the result
of short-term changing lake level fluctuations in an arid environment,
or longer term changes due to fluctuating relative sea-level or lake-
level changes. The interpretation depends in whether facies associa-
tion 4 (below) is considered as marine or lacustrine. However, the
complete absence of body and trace fossil makes a marginal marine
environment most unlikely. In the Lake Eyre area of Australia, the
weakly incised meander belts of ephemeral streams feeding the lake
from the east and northeast are periodically inundated by rising lake
levels during large floods, depositing lacustrine sabkha and evaporitic
facies (Fl, Fm, Elm) in the channels (Wells and Callen, 1986). The
channels consist of trough cross-bedded fine sands (St)(sometimes
clay-pellet sands) with a basal conglomerate of lithic clasts (here
dominantly gypsum and pedogenic carbonate) derived from the
underlying Tertiary. The gypcreted dunes found in this Recent
environment, however, appear unrepresented in facies association 3.
3.4.4. Interbedded fine clastics and evaporites
This association is confined to the Eden Shale Formation and the
Mercia Mudstones Group. It can really only be studied in boreholes,
though some idea of the clastic facies can be obtained from the limited
outcrops transitional to facies associations 3 and 5 where the
sediments consist of lithofacies 7,8,10,11.
Along the northern edge of the basin, the Eden Shales of the
Chapelcross boreholes consists of 80 metres of interbedded silty
gypsum/anhydrite and gypsiferous siltstones and fine sandstones
(lithofacies 10, 11, 12, 13) which lie directly above the basal breccias
and pass upwards into 10 to 30 metres (depending on where the
contact with the Annan Sandstone is taken) of interbedded planar
fine-grained sandstones and interbedded mudstones (lithofacies 10,
11, 12) (Fig. 15) (Holliday et al., 2001). Forty kilometres south-east the
Langwathby and Lounthwaite boreholes (Fig. 2) have 100-120 metres
of interbedded fine gypsiferous clastics and gypsum/anhydrite similar
to the Chapelcross borehole, with the basal clastics resting on Lower
Permian aeolian sandstones (Burgess, 1965). However, here, four
distinct gypsum/anhydrite beds (A to D) can be recognized, of which B
and C are persistent and D , which dies out to the north has a thin
underlying dolomite. Towards the west the anhydrite/gypsum and
dolomite layers become thicker at the base of the St Bees (=Eden)
Shales at St. Bees and in borehole #112/19 north of the Isle of Man
(Fig. 2) (Akhurst et al., 1997; Newman, 1999) and pass into halite-
dominated successions to the south (up to 200 metres thick are
recorded in offshore boreholes 112/25A and 113/27-1, see Fig. 2):
though further south and west these pass back into anhydrite/gypsum
and dolomite (Jackson et al., 1995). The variety of subfacies of the
gypsum/anhydrite (Elm) lithofacies (and biofacies) can be used to
refine the saline lake/marginal marine model in some detail (and will
be discussed elsewhere). Here a simple comparison is made with
some possible modern equivalents.
The interbedding of fine clastics showing signs of exposure with
primary and early diagenetic gypsum/anhydrite is characteristic of
both marine and non-marine sabkhas (Schreiber and El Tabakh, 2000)
and playa lakes. Modern analogies to this lithofacies association are
present in and around Lake Eyre (Australia), Lake Chad (Africa) and the
Aral Sea (Central Asia), where great fluctuations in lake extent cause
 M.E. Brookfield / Sedimentary Geology 210 (2008) 27–47 41

away. However, lake faunas have changed markedly through time

(Park and Gierlowski-Kordesch, 2007).

3.4.5. Large-scale cross-bedded sandstone - wavy bedded siltstone/

mudstone association
Large-scale cross-bedded sandstones (lithofacies 9) interbedded
with units of parallel laminated sandstones (lithofacies 10), wavy
bedded siltstones (lithofacies 11) and mudstones (lithofacies12) are
characteristic of the Kirklinton Sandstone Formation and this
lithofacies association starts abruptly above the Annan Sandstones
(Brookfield, 2004; Holliday et al., 2004). There are only a handful of
sections suitable for architectural analysis. The best section at Cliff
bridge (loc. 23, Brookfield, 2004) shows lensitic units of trough cross-
bedded sandstone bounded by undulating erosional bounding
surfaces mostly dipping upwind and bounded by dominantly planar
bedded aeolian sandstones (Fig. 16A). Such units represent fields of
simple three-dimensional barchanoid or linear dunes migrating
across dry intervening interdune accretion deposits; there is no
evidence of more complex draa bedforms (Rubin, 1987; Brookfield,
1992). The association of these dune sandstones elsewhere with
thicker deposits of water-laid occasionally gypsiferous fine sediments
suggests an aeolian sabkha rather than a continental dune field, as
noted by Herries and Cowan (1997). In Libya, aeolian barchanoid dune
complexes migrating across dry interdunes could form similar
successions and geometries (Fig. 16B). Thicker gypsiferous fine-
grained units may represent amalgamated interdunes or wide-spread
dune-free sabkhas (Simpson and Loope, 1985). In the Solway basin
there is, however, no sign of the damp/wet interdune strata recorded
from the upper units of the Sherwood Sandstone in Cheshire
(Mountney and Thompson, 2002).

4. Modern analogues

There have been few detailed studies of fluvial processes in arid to

hyperarid areas, largely due to the difficulty of direct observation.
Most studies are limited to observing the sedimentary effects long
after flow events. Observation of the sedimentary record shown by
Fig. 15. Lithofacies association 4 with lithofacies labeled. A) Chapelcross borehole; arid to hyperarid streams suggests that their long-term histories
B) upper Eden Shale transitional to Annan Sandstone (Robgill, loc 13). Legend on Table 2. have been dominated by repeated large floods, and that the stream
channels are very sensitive to the effects of large or catastrophic floods
(Tooth, 2000). For example, rain falls only infrequently on the Gilf
interbedding on a very extensive scale of beds and layer of evaporites,
‘tidal flat’ fine clastics and fluvial sheet sandstones. Fluctuations can be
extremely rapid. For example, in Lake Eyre, filling by inflows of the
order of 5,000 - 10,000 m3/sec. takes only a few months, and if there
are no further inflows drying up takes only one to three years (Magee,
1993). In the Solway basin, there are no diagnostic evaporite minerals
which can be used to distinguish precipitation from marine or
continental saline waters (Bryant et al., 1994) and the other
lithological associations indicate continental deposition.
The fossil biota found in the southern areas of the Solway-East Irish
Sea basin is not diagnostic of marine or lacustrine environments, and
consists of plant spores, algae, foraminifera linings, probable fungi,
gastropods, and bivalves (Pattison, 1970; Arthurton and Hemingway,
1972). The lithofacies distributions suggest a basin centre evaporitic
lake or estuary in the Irish Sea depositing mainly halite surrounded by
a marginal highly fluctuating sabkha area in which gypsum and fine
clastics accumulated (Jackson et al., 1987). The lack of any fossil biota
in the Solway evaporite association remains a problem. Recent
episodic saline lakes are rapidly colonized from adjacent areas when
they fill. For example, Lake Torrens (south of Lake Eyre) filled for the
first recorded time in March, 1989, and was rapidly colonized by 29
taxa of aquatic organisms (dominantly arthropods), before the water
Fig. 16. Lithofacies association 5 architecture. A) Kirklinton Sandstone (Cliff house, loc.
evaporated completely by the end of 1989 (Williams et al., 1998). The 24). Undulating major bounding surfaces separating cross-bedded sets with occasional
lack of biota in most of the Solway evaporite deposits suggest that any reactivation surfaces; B) modern analogy; 3-dimensional barchanoid dune complexes
possible colonization source was either absent or very long distances migrating over sabkhas (Libyan desert, Libya); truck for scale.
42 M.E. Brookfield / Sedimentary Geology 210 (2008) 27–47
Kebir Plateau in southern Egypt; and the estimated 50-100 mm/year is
concentrated in only a few days of a year (it does not rain every year),
causing very large floods extending some distance into the surround-
ing hyperarid desert (pers. obs. 2001-2005). Such floods erode
strongly because the sandy banks are weak, especially in the absence
of vegetation (Pickup, 1991). The closest analogies to the facies
associations recognized above in the Solway basin are in such large
arid inland basins with internal drainage into saline lakes in which
great fluctuations of lake extent (but not depth) cause very rapid and
’layer cake’- type vertical facies changes, but with limited fluvial
channel incision (Magee and Miller, 1998; Maley, 2000). Climatic
fluctuations in such lake basins are also widespread and can lead to
major vertical changes from, for example, dominantly ephemeral
stream-lake to dominantly aeolian facies associations, as has hap-
pened many times during the Quaternary in the Lake Eyre and Lake
Chad basins (Durand, 1995; Alley, 1998). The facies associations
defined above can be recognized in various parts of the Recent Lake
Eyre Basin; though unfortunately only the areal distributions have
been studied, with relatively little on the stratigraphy (Alley, 1998).
However, the sand being supplied by ephemeral streams is relatively
coarse and immature in the Lake Eyre Basin and the late Cenozoic
section is thin because. tectonic subsidence has practically ceased
(Wells and Callen, 1986). The Chad Basin is perhaps a better analogy
than the Lake Eyre Basin for the fine-grained alluvial clastics of the
Annan and Kirklinton Sandstone. The northern part of the Lake Chad
basin (the hyperarid Bodele region) contains the Fya sub-basin (Louis,
1970) in which most of the fluvial sediment occasionally supplied
from the Tibesti and Ennedi Precambrian massifs during rare
rainstorms is trapped (Kusnir, 1995) and reworked by the wind to
supply a large proportion of the world's dust (Goudie and Middleton,
Fig. 17. Dust storm deflating northern Chad basin; fine sand brought in from Libyan desert across low divide between Tibesti and Ennedi massifs and position of very intermittent Bahr
el Gazal drainage. Inset shows Solway Basin (Fig. 2) to same scale.
2001) (Fig. 17). Very occasionally, flows in the Bahr El Gazal wadi
transport fine sediment from this area southwestward towards Lake
Chad (Olivry et al., 1996). The Lake Eye Basin is perhaps a better
analogy for the lacustrine facies of the Eden Shales, since Lake Chad is
not hypersaline as it is supplied by the Chari and Logi rivers with
freshwater from much wetter savannah areas to the southeast
(N1000 mm rainfall)(Maley, 1981). Both the Lake Eyre and Lake
Chad basins are, however, are on much grander scale than the Irish Sea
Basin of which the Solway Basin is simply an extension - scale is
important (Fig. 18). In fact the early Triassic palaeogeography of the
British Isles almost exactly mimics the present Lake Chad basin: in
both northwesterly flowing river systems end in evaporitic (or
potentially evaporitic) basins; both have tectonically-controlled sub-
basins; and both are flanked on the north by hyperarid deserts
(compare Fig. 18B with C).
5. Ancient analogues
Using ancient analogues to interpret other ancient deposits simply
leads to circular reasoning. Nevertheless, there are many other an-
cient deposits which have the same characteristics as the Solway
Basin and may repay re-investigation.
Red bed successions of this type are found throughout the Permian
and Triassic of Western Europe and elsewhere. Akhurst et al. (1997)
made reconstructions of the main Permo-Triassic formations of
Cumbria which greatly resemble the reconstructions of the facies
association above, except that they were related to a positive Lake
District block and within the framework of rift basins. Clemmensen
(1978, 1985) described almost identical facies to those described here
(apart for the aeolian sandstones) and provided a reconstruction of
 M.E. Brookfield / Sedimentary Geology 210 (2008) 27–47
Fig. 18. Maps and structural cross-sections of: A) Lake Eyre (Alley, 1998); B) Lake Chad (Burke, 1976) basins, small black box on A and B is the Solway Basin (Fig. 2) to the same scale;
C) Triassic basins of UK to same scale showing main paleoflow directions (from Ziegler, 1990).
lithofacies associations which would serve equally well for the Solway
Basin, except that facies boundary changes are much more horizontal
in the Solway Basin. Analogous evaporitic lake-ephemeral stream-
aeolian facies in intracontinental basins have been described from the
late Permian of Central Europe (Gaupp et al., 2000), the Permian of the
southern North Sea (Sweet, 1999) and Northwest China (Wartes et al.,
2000) and the early to mid-Triassic of Spain and Germany (Lopez-
Gomez and Arche, 1993; Vecsei and Mandau, 2002; Ulicny, 2004). The
facies of the early Jurassic Kayenta Formation of western North
America is practically identical to those of the Annan and Kirklinton
Sandstones (Luttrell, 1993).
6. Palaeotectonics
The Solway basin developed in the south-centre of the northern
part of Pangaea (Golonka and Ford, 2000) between about 27°N (late
Permian) to 38°N (late Triassic) (Knott et al., 1993), over 1500 km
northwest of the Tethyan shelf margin, as a post-rifting intraconti-
nental basin (Fig. 1).
Only in the early Permian and late Triassic are there signs of rifting;
the first associated with the rifting between Greenland and Europe
(Brookfield, 1980), and the second associated with the early stages of
the opening of the Central Atlantic Ocean, south of Britain (Ziegler,
1990) and affecting the later Triassic Mercia Mudstones, where
thicknesses across faults vary significantly (Knipe et al., 1993; Shelton,
1997); whereas thicknesses of the Sherwood Sandstone Group and
underlying sediments do not vary across these faults (Musgrove et al.,
1995). Despite periodic claims that present structural highs (the
Southern Uplands, the Lake District, and the Pennines) affected late
Paleozoic sedimentation (e.g. Fraser and Gawthorpe, 1990; Ziegler,
1990), there is in fact little evidence from the sedimentary succession
for this and the amount of pre-Cenozoic burial has been under-
43
estimated (Bray et al., 1992). Thermal histories for these areas
reconstructed from fission track dating and vitrinite reflectance data
suggest that regional Cenozoic uplift erosion in the North Atlantic
Igneous Province, and consequent erosion, has removed between 0.8
to 1.3 km from the East Midlands shelf, at least 2 km from the Pennines
(Green, 1986; Bray et al., 1992), and 3 km from the East Irish Sea basin
(Lewis et al., 1992; Rowley and White, 1998). The present topography
is the result of differential Cenozoic uplift and erosion unrelated to late
Paleozoic- early Mesozoic topographies.
In view of the inadequate dating, subsidence curves for individual
units in the Solway Basin would be inaccurate at best. The entire
succession, however, from late Permian to late Triassic (271-204ma, or
67 ma duration) at the centre of the Solway Basin has a maximum
thickness of around 1600 metres (Quirk et al., 1999). The average
sedimentation rate is thus 24 mm/ka. Finer-grained sections have
lower sedimentation rates due to differential compaction and there
has probably been significant loss of evaporites. The Mercia Mudstone
Group, affected by synsedimentary faulting shows less than half the
compacted sedimentation rate of the Sherwood Sandstone Group,
unaffected by synsedimentary faulting (Ruffell and Shelton, 1999). For
example, in the Larne 2 borehole in northern Ireland, using compacted
sediment thicknesses, the Sherwood Sandstone Group is about
650 metres thick and appears to have been deposited entirely within
the Scythian Stage (~ 10 ma)(Penn, 1981). If, so, then the rate of
sedimentation is 65 mm.ka- 1. The Mercia Mudstone Group in the same
borehole is 950 m thick and, over its 30 ma period (Ladinian-Norian),
accumulated at 32 mm.ka - 1. However, since muds compact to about
50% of their depositional thickness, the sedimentation rate increases
to 64 mm.ka - 1, about the same as the sandstones. The Solway Basin
might have been below sea-level for much of the period in which case
the accumulation rates are simply a function of sediment supply,
fluctuations in lake level and extent, and possibly wind deflation,
44 M.E. Brookfield / Sedimentary Geology 210 (2008) 27–47
rather than marine base-level control (Ken Glennie, pers. comm.). The
basin could simply be filling up with only isostatic subsidence to
control the accommodation space.
The tectonic history of the Solway Basin (and adjacent areas)
closely resembles that of the Chad Basin. Both began with uplift and
rifting; in the Solway Basin during the earliest Permian (~ 295 ma), in
the Chad Basin in the Lower Cretaceous (~ 125 ma). After erosion,
thermal subsidence began in Solway Basin in the latest Permian
(~ 255), in the Chad Basin in the late Cretaceous (~85 ma): i.e. both
took 40 ma from initial rifting to thermal subsidence. The Solway
Basin changed into part of a passive margin shelf with the start of
opening of the Atlantic and the marine transgression of the latest
Triassic (~ 205 ma), i.e. after 50 ma of thermal subsidence. The Chad
Basin is still an intracontinental basin after 85 ma but has accumulated
less than 1 Km of sediment since the early Miocene (25 ma) - a
sedimentation rate of 40 mm/ka (Hartley and Allen, 1994). This is
lower than the 65 mm/ka average for the clastic sediments of the
Solway Basin (Sherwood Sandstone and Mercia Mudstones above),
but is in keeping with the longer history and asymptotically declining
subsidence rates of the Chad basin.
7. Palaeoclimate
The arid to hyperarid climate claimed for the Solway basin, by
analogy with lakes Eyre and Chad, lasted for possibly 65 million years
(Table 1). This requires explanation since lakes Eyre and Chad sediments
only show arid to hyperarid conditions periodically during the 2 million-
year-long Quaternary ice-age climatic fluctuations (Durand, 1995; Alley,
1998). Their earlier sediments were deposited under much more
variable and generally wetter climatic conditions. The rapid northward
drift of Australia during the Cenozoic has carried it through several
climatic zones and the climates of both lakes have also changed during
the world-wide Cenozoic climatic deterioration. How did the Solway
basin climate remain so arid for such a long time? The explanation lies in
the stability of both tectonics and climate during the Triassic. From late
Permian to late Triassic, Britain moved only about 1200 km (about
11 degrees of latitude) northwards (Knott et al.,1993) from about 27°N to
38°N. This is almost entirely within the 15° to 35° latitudinal desert belt,
even if the late Permian to late Triassic latitudinal temperature gradient
was warmer and weaker from pole to equator, with warm climate
palaeosols developing up to 85° latitude (Retallack, 1999; Kidder and
Worseley, 2004). In the late Triassic eastern North American rift basins,
palaeolatitudinal variation in facies points to a stable climatic config-
uration, with a wet equatorial belt flanked by desert facies comparable to
the present, though steeper (Mutti and Weissert, 1995; Kent and Olsen,
2000) and similar conditions prevailed in the late Permian (Fluteau et al.,
2001). Monsoon circulation across the northern Tethyan margin caused
seasonal precipitation on the southern Variscan hills (reaching heights
of possibly 2 km in places), whose northward drainage by seasonal
streams provided sediment to the semi-arid to arid southern and
midland areas of England (Steel and Thompson, 1983; Fluteau et al.,
2001; Chumakov and Zharkov, 2003). The desert conditions are
confirmed by the widespread xeromorphic Zechstein (late Permian)
and Voltzia (middle Triassic) floras found elsewhere in Eurasia, though
there is a floral break during the early Triassic (Dobruskina, 1987)
after a massive and global Permian die-back of coniferous vegetation
which did not recover until the mid-Triassic (Looy et al., 1999). Early
Triassic coals are unknown (Retallack et al., 1996). Furthermore, land
animals (including, uniquely, the insects) also suffered devastating
loss of diversity during the end Permian extinction and did not recover
until the mid-Triassic (Labandeira and Sepkoski, 1993; Benton et al.,
2004). How significant these unique early Triassic ecosystem character-
istics (especially the almost complete loss of land vegetation) are for
explaining some of the peculiarities of the Sherwood Sandstone Group
(and other early Triassic sediments) is unknown but require further
investigation (see Retallack, 1995). They certainly affected the Permo-
Triassic river characteristics of South Africa, which changed from
predominantly meandering to predominantly braided (Ward et al.,
2000).
8. Conclusions
The thirteen non-marine lithofacies identified in the late Permian-
mid-Triassic of the Solway basin can be arranged into five main
lithofacies associations which are comparable with the desert reg, arid
ephemeral stream, sabkha, saline lake and aeolian sand dune environ-
ments of the Recent arid to hyperarid areas of existing intracontinental
basins such as Lake Eyre and Lake Chad. The fine-grained submature
sandstones above the local basal reg breccias suggest water-reworking
of wind-transported sediment, as in the northern part of the Lake Chad
basin. Sediment accumulation in such basins is primarily controlled by
large fluctuations in lake extent superimposed on tectonic subsidence
and this promotes a large-scale ‘layer-cake’ stratigraphy as exemplified
in the Solway basin. There is no evidence of post-early Permian rifting
anywhere during deposition of the late Permian to mid-Triassic British
successions, although these successions are often interpreted with a
rift-basin model (e.g. Akhurst et al., 1997). The arid to hyperarid
palaeoclimate changed little throughout deposition of the Solway basin
succession, in contrast to Lakes Eyre and Chad. This is due to tectonic,
palaeolatitudinal and palaeoclimatic stability as the Solway Basin
remained in the northern latitudinal desert belt from late Permian to
late Triassic times.
The extensive tabular arrangement of lithofacies and their great
extent in the Solway Basin and adjacent areas are far more readily
explained with models based on Recent arid to hyperarid sedimenta-
tion in the Mesozoic-Recent intracontinental basins of Australia and
Africa, than to rift-based models (Hartley and Allen, 1994; Jackson
et al., 1995; see Ruffell and Shelton, 1999). Even though Wills (1970)
briefly compared British Triassic sediments with the Recent sediments
of the Australian interior, only Talbot et al. (1994) have recently made
direct comparisons (of the topmost Mercia Mudstone Group) with the
Australian interior where arid streams spread very extensive clastic
blankets of sediment over vast areas. Furthermore, the aridity to
hyperaridity of these basins has also not been sufficiently emphasized.
These conclusions for the Solway basin possibly also apply to the rest
of the late Permian to late Triassic basins of Western Europe and
perhaps to other similar red bed successions elsewhere. In fact the
entire assemblage of late Permian to mid-Triassic basins of Western
Europe may simply be sub-basins within a larger Chadian-type
intracontinental mega basin stretching from central Europe to eastern
North America (see Fig. 1). However, the effects of the peculiar global
state of the world biosphere on early Triassic environments also
require much more evaluation.
Acknowledgments
All my research was funded by NSERC Canada to whom I am
indebted for over 35 years of funding (ended in 2006). This study is
part of an informal collaborative study with the Geological Survey of
Scotland on the Quaternary and Triassic of the Carlisle basin. I
especially appreciate the collaboration, and field and office discus-
sions, with Andrew McMillan and Maxine Akhurst and constructive
criticism of earlier versions of the manuscript by Andrew Cohen, Ken
Glennie, Doug Holliday, Peter Martini, Neil Meadows, Andrew Miall,
Nigel Mounteney and Colin North.
My knowledge of Lake Eyre, apart from the literature, comes from a
field trip in 1986 led by Rod Wells, Roger Callen and colleagues, and field
discussions with Brian Rust. For Lake Chad and other basins in the
Sahara, I am indebted to expeditions led (or organized) by András Zboray
and Dabuka Expeditions (Egypt, Sudan), Suzanne Leroy and Pedro Costa
(Mauritania), and Pointe Afrique (Algeria, Niger, Chad), and to the local
inhabitants for food and accommodation (where available).
 M.E. Brookfield / Sedimentary Geology 210 (2008) 27–47 45

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