Scawgill and Blaze Beck

Also within

Cumbria County LAKE DISTRICT National Park

Condition (Natural England)

Habitats

Fast flowing river and stream

Geology & landscape

Geological Feature: Gorge / Ravine · Mining / Industrial: Quarry · Geological Period: Ordovician

Landscape processes: Fluvial

Description

Description Scawgill and Blaze Beck are situated on the western side of the Whinlatter Pass, about 9 kilometres west of Keswick and two kilometres east of High Lorton. The site consists of three separate areas, a disused quarry and hillside in the north, disused quarries about 200 metres west of Blaze Bridge and a stream gorge section located between the northern and southern areas. These stream and quarry sections provide exposures of the upper part of the Hope Beck Formation and the lower part of the Loweswater Formation, both of the Skiddaw Group. These consist of siltstones and mudstones with very subordinate sandstones, passing up into homogenous mudstones and eventually into the mudstones, siltstones and sandstones of the lower part of the Loweswater Formation. These rocks represent turbidites and hemipelagic sediments deposited in an unstable shelf slope setting on the margin of the eastern Avalonian microcontinent. The mudstones contain an assemblage of graptolites representing the Didymograptus varicosus Biozone of the Moridunian Stage of the Lower Ordovician, Arenig Series. These include the D. vacillans alternatus, D. varicosus, D. filiformis and D. aff. balticus, at the top of the Hope Beck Formation; D. varicosus, D. filiformis, D. cf decens and dichograptids from the basal part of the Loweswater Formation; and D. varicosus, D. aff. balticus and Trichograptus from slightly higher horizons in the Loweswater Formation. The three areas of the site each represent differing horizons within this Biozone and the faunal composition and individual species abundance change from horizon to horizon. The relative abundance and high diversity of graptolites at this site means that it is of significance for the understanding of stratigraphical correlations between rocks of Lower Ordovician age within southern Britain. Because of the oceanward position of this site the graptolite fauna is in part cosmopolitan. This mix of the cosmopolitan and provincial elements at this site give it great significance for the international stratigraphical correlation of Lower Ordovician rocks particularly with Scandinavia at a time of maximum continental fragmentation and dispersal. The site is therefore of great significance for future studies of this aspect of Ordovician geology.

Plant communities