Gallery of karst features and geology in the vicinity of Black Head Co Clare

Photographs taken in June 2008 on the SEPM Field trip to Co Clare, Ireland, by Christopher Kendall of outcrops the Dinantian Burren Limestone Formation at Black Head in the township of Murrooghtoohy North. These images include karst pavements and the associated topography. Along the margins of country road R477 exposures of the Dinantian Burren Limestone Formation can be seen to be composed of shallow water carbonates.  Note the clints (limestone blocks) and grikes (joints and fractures formed by Variscan folding (Coller, 1984)) extensively enlarged by Pleistocene dissolution (Williams, 1966). Above the road the topography is almost devoid of vegetation, though when it occurs it fills prominent grikes.


Bibliography and References

Coller, D.W. (1984) Variscan structures in the UpperPalaeozoic rocks of west central Ireland: Geological Society of London, Special Publications 14, p. 185-194.

Drew, D. (2001) Classic Landforms of the Burren Karst, Geographical Association in conjunction with the British Geomorphological Research Group. p. 52.
 
Gallagher, Stephen J. & Somerville, Ian D., 2003, Lower Carboniferous (Late Viséan) Platform Development and cyclicity In Southern Ireland: Foraminiferal biofacies and lithofacies evidence, Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia;  Volume 109 No. 2 Pp. 159-171.

Hodson, F. (1952) The beds above the Carboniferous limestone in North-West County Clare, Eire: Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 109, p. 259-283
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Leeder, M.R. (1988) Recent developments in Carboniferous geology: a critical review with implications for the British Isles and N.W. Europe: Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 99, p. 73-100.

McNamara, M. A and Hennessy, R. W., 2010, The Geology of the Burren region, Co. Clare, Ireland Burren Connect Project.175pp.

Williams, W. (1966) limestone pavements with special reference to Western Ireland. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 40, p. 155