Yoredale Series

The Yoredale Series, in geology, is a local phase of the lower Carboniferous rocks of the north of England. The name was introduced by J. Phillips on account of the typical development of the phase in Yoredale (now generally known as Wensleydale), Yorkshire.

In the Yorkshire dales the Carboniferous rocks assume an aspect very different from that which obtains in the South. Beds of detrital sediment, sandstones, shales and occasional ironstones and thin coals separate the limestones into well-defined beds. These limestone beds have received various names of local significance (Hardraw Scar, Simonstone, Middle, Underset, Main and many others), and owing to the country being little disturbed by faulting and being much cut up by the streams, they stand out as escarpments on either side of the valleys. The first indication of the intercalation of thick detrital deposits within the massive limestone is seen in Ingleborough and Penyghent; but as the rocks are traced north the detrital matter increases in quantity and the limestones diminish, until in Northumberland the whole Carboniferous series assumes the Yoredale phase, and consists of alternations of detrital and calcareous beds, no massive limestone being seen.

The Yoredale limestones are characterized by the presence of Productus giganteus and the brachiopod fauna usually associated with it. The main limestone of Weardale is full of corals, including Lonsdaleia floriformis, Dibunophyllum sp., Cyclophyllum pachyendothecum, etc., and has a typical Visean fauna; it would therefore correspond, palaeontologically, with the upper part of the Carboniferous Limestone of Derbyshire.

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