Scremerston

About 3 weeks ago now I took another trip down to the Borders (mostly because I had a dentist appointment, and am still registered down there). In any case, while I was there I figured I might as well spend the last few sunny days of the summer out in the field.
Originally the plan was for Emma and Hazel to drive down, pick me up and then head on down to the coast. However, Hazel got stuck working so Emma got the bus down, and we prevailed upon my father to drive us around.

So we decided to drive down to the beach at Scremerston, a stretch of coast in the North-East of England just south of Berwick. It’s a stretch of Carboniferous Limestones, Shales, Sandstones and some coal layers. The palaeoenvironment is basically that of a coast line; with remnants of Corals, Crinoids and Brachiopods which lived in shallow waters as well as coal swamps on land. There’s quite a lot of folding evident along the beach as well, some of which is visible on Google Maps.
We parked alongside what I think is an old coastal defence position, had lunch, then headed down to the beach to do some fossil hunting.

Gunnery Position

Since we mostly just wandered around randomly I won’t try and describe the locality in a particularly systematic fashion, instead I will attempt to highlight the various fossils and structural features that can be found in the area.

Large Brachiopods (Possibly Gigantoproductids)

Note the extremely bioclastic nature of the rock – it’s basically all shell fragments.

Trace Fossils

As previously mentioned on this blog, my palaeontology skills aren’t fantastic, but I think these are probably Gastropod trails.

Rugose Coral

Rugose Corals

Geode in Cavity

Sectioned Crinoid Stems

Crinoids are particularly abundant in this area. If you’re looking for specimens there is a fantastic bed of soft, weathered rock where you can practically pick them out with your fingers at approximately 55°43.725′ N by 1°57.072′ W.

Dipping Beds

In places large sections of strata are exposed, including (at the bottom right of this image) the occasional coal seam.

Folding

Further north up the beach are some delightful examples of folding, with various parts of the fold exposed – some showing quite complex structures.

More Folding

Fold hinge (note the extensive veining)

Me

Fold Hingeline

The dunes above the shoreline are also of interest, albeit not so much to geologists. The area is host to a wide variety of fairly rare butterflies, a couple of which I was able to photograph (rather  inexpertly).

Spot the butterfly

As usual, all of these photos are up on my flickr page here (at least until they get knocked of by new ones – I have a non-pro account).

The area is a great day out, and specimens of Brachiopods, Crinoids, Corals, trace fossils, iron nodules, geodes, folding, veining, rootlets above coal seams, and a whole lot more can all be found in a kilometre or so of coastline. You might hear more from me on this topic in the future, as I’m seriously considering it as the location for next summer’s mapping project.

Tags: Borders, Carboniferous, Geology