The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Yellow Sands Formation

Computer Code: YWS Preferred Map Code: YwS
Status Code: Full
Age range: Cisuralian Epoch (PLC) — Lopingian Epoch (PUL)
Lithological Description: Generally uncemented or weakly cemented, mainly medium- and fine-grained, cross-stratified, yellow aeolian sand or sandstone.
Definition of Lower Boundary: Unconformity; erosion surface cut in Carboniferous, usually Coal Measures, strata.
Definition of Upper Boundary: Unconformity; transgression of marine, Late Permian, Zechstein Group strata; usually the Marl Slate Formation but locally where this is absent, over palaeotopographic highs or as a result of syndepositional slumping, the younger Raisby and Ford formations.
Thickness: To 68.7 m (Smith, 1994).
Geographical Limits: In the Durham province; Durham, Tyne and Wear, Cleveland and northernmost North Yorkshire, South and West Yorkshire, it covers about two-thirds of the sub-Permian unconformity (Smith, 1994).
Parent Unit: Rotliegend Group (RLG)
Previous Name(s): Yellow Sands [Obsolete Name and Code: Use YWS] (-2549)
Yellow Sand (-623)
Basal Permian Breccia [Obsolete Name And Code: See PBB] (BPB)
Basal Permian Sandstone (BPST)
Basal Permian Yellow Sands [Obsolete Name and Code: Use YWS] (-4412)
Basal Permian Sands [Obsolete Name and Code: Use YWS] (-4991)
Lower Red Sandstone [Obsolete Name and Code: Use YWS, HSW] (-3481)
Yellow Sands Formation (YWS)
Alternative Name(s): Auk Formation
Stratotypes:
Type Area  In the banks of the River Wear near Claxheugh Rock, Sunderland: basal unconformity on north bank of river at [NZ 357 576] (Smith, 1994, plate 1, p. 55-58; Smith, 1995, p. 57-63). 
Reference Section  Crime Rigg Quarry, Sherburn Hill, near Durham. Up to 30 m of sand exposed in quarry faces beneath the Marl Slate Formation. Quarry working in 1999 (Smith and Francis, 1967). 
Reference(s):
Cameron, T D J. 1993. 4. Triassic, Permian and pre-Permian of the Central and Northern North Sea. In: Knox, R W O'B and Cordey, W G (eds.) Lithostratigraphic nomenclature of the UK North Sea. British Geological Survey, Nottingham. 
Hutton, W. 1831. Notes on the New Red Sandstone in the county of Durham, below the Magnesian Limestone. Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Vol. 1, 60 - 74. 
Smith, D B, 1995. Marine Permian of England. Geological Conservation Review Series No. 8. [London: Chapman and Hall.] 
Smith, D B, 1994. Geology of the country around Sunderland. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, Sheet 21, (England and Wales). 
Sedgwick, A. 1829. On the geological relations and internal structure of the Magnesian Limestone and the lower portions of the New Red Sandstone Series in their range through Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Durham to the southern extremity of Northumberland. Transactions of the Geological Society of London, Second Series, Vol. 3, p. 37 - 124. 
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). 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
E015 E021 E026 E027 E032 E033 E055 E065 E042 E052 E062 E070 E078 E087