Groverake Lead - Fluorspar Mine - geograph

The Alston Block is a term used by geologists to describe the geological structure of the

North Pennines The North Pennines is the northernmost section of the Pennine range of hills which runs north–south through northern England. It lies between Carlisle to the west and Darlington to the east. It is bounded to the north by the Tyne Valley and ...

of northern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and which forms a part of the Pennine Block & Basin Province which originated during the

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Era, a length or span of time * Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...

. It is defined by the Stublick and Ninety Fathom faults to the north, the Pennine Fault to the west and the

Stainmore Stainmore is a remote geographic area in the Pennines on the border of Cumbria, County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name is used for a civil parish in the Eden District of Cumbria, England, including the villages of North Stainmore and South ...

Trough to the south. It is in essence a horst underlain by the

Weardale Granite The North Pennine Batholith, also known as the Weardale Granite is a granitic batholith lying under northeast England, emplaced around 400 million years ago in the early Devonian.Kimbell, G.S., B. Young, D. Millward and Q. G. Crowley (2010). 'Th ...

which provides sufficient buoyancy to maintain this piece of the upper crust as an area of raised relief. To its west lies the

Vale of Eden The Vale of Eden is formed by the course of the River Eden, one of the major rivers of Northwest England. It is however of much greater extent than the actual valley of the river, lying between the Cumbrian Mountains (more usually referred to as ...

and to its north is the half-graben of the

Northumberland Trough The Northumberland Trough, also known as the Northumberland Basin, is an element of the structural geology of northern England, the origin of which dates back to the Carboniferous period when a block and basin province was established throughout ...

.British Geological Survey. 1996, ''Tectonic Map of Britain, Ireland & adjacent areas'', Pharaoh et al. 1:1500 000 (Keyworth, BGS) The area is also known for its mineral wealth.

References

Carboniferous England Geology of the Pennines Horsts (geology) {{geology-stub

See also

References