Mousegill Beck

Also within

Cumbria County

Condition (Natural England)

Habitats

Fast flowing river and stream

Geology & landscape

Geological Period: Carboniferous

Description

Area, 8.9 hectares 22.0 ac. Description This site lies near South Stainmore, four kilometres south east of Brough and eight kilometres north east of Kirkby Stephen. It comprises the bed, banks and lower valley sides of the Mousegill Beck and extends from the confluence of this stream with the Argill Beck at its western end, some 1.2 kilometres upstream. The site is of geological interest and this may be described, in technical terms, as follows, Mousegill Beck displays a virtually complete section through the whole Namurian of the Stainmore Outlier and is the key to an understanding of the stratigraphy of the outlier. Studies of the section have led to the development of zonal schemes based on the microfossils. These have shown all the stages of the Namurian to be present, disproving the presence of a large stratigraphic break, previously postulated on macrofaunal evidence. This is a vital section in the Namurian of the Stainmore Trough. In layman's terms, the interest of the site may be expressed more simply and such a statement is provided below. The bed and banks of the Mousegill Beck provide extensive exposures through a sequence of rock layers originally formed during the mid Carboniferous Namurian period of geological history. The rock section spans about 15 million years of geological history, recording a continuous sequence of deposits which accumulated, between 325 and 310 million years ago, on the bed of a sea that covered this area at that time. Mousegill Beck thus offers a remarkable insight into the environment of this area for a protracted period of geological history. Geologists have studied these rocks in great detail and have been able to extract from them microscopic fossils which have allowed precise comparisons to be made between this sequence and sequences of similar age elsewhere in Britain. This is a locality of considerable importance for geological study of rocks of Namurian age.

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