The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Hartlepool Anhydrite Formation

Computer Code: HPA Preferred Map Code: HPA
Status Code: Full
Age range: Guadalupian Epoch (PUG) — Lopingian Epoch (PUL)
Lithological Description: Anhydrite rock; translucent blue-grey and grey with a faint to well-marked, coarsely marbled appearance that results from an anastomosing (penemosaic) net of pale brown dolostone.
Definition of Lower Boundary: Sharp contact with underlying Ford Formation dolostone.
Definition of Upper Boundary: Gradational upwards passage into the overlying Roker Formation dolostone.
Thickness: To 150m.
Geographical Limits: Western parts of the Zechstein Sea basin; in northeastern England on the basinward (east) side of the Ford Formation reef-edge.
Parent Unit: Zechstein Group (ZG)
Previous Name(s): Hartlepool Anhydrite [Obsolete Name and Code: Use HPA] (-2247)
Alternative Name(s): none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Type Section  Offshore No. 2 Borehole, 6 miles north of Hartlepool coastguard station (Smith and Francis, 1967, pp. 152 and 313). 
Reference(s):
Smith, D B and Francis, E A. 1967. Geology of the country between Durham and West Hartlepool. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Sheet 27 (England and Wales). 
Marley, J. 1892. On the Cleveland and south Durham salt industry. Transactions of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, Vol. 39, p. 91 - 125. 
Trechmann, C T. 1913. On a mass of anhydrite in the Magnesian Limestone at Hartlepool and on the Permian of south-eastern Durham. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, Vol. 69, p. 184 - 218. 
Smith, D B, Harwood, G M, Pattison, J and Pettigrew, T H. 1986. A revised nomenclature for Upper Permian strata in eastern England. 9-17 in Harwood, G M and Smith, D B (editors). The English Zechstein and Related Topics. Geological Society Special Publication No.22. 
Smith, D B, 1994. Geology of the country around Sunderland. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, Sheet 21, (England and Wales). 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
E021 E027 E033 E015