Humberside Geologist no 8
published 1991
Mike Buxton, who joined the Society in April 1989, has had a paper published in the journal of the Geological Society, in volume 146. The paper, co-written by Martyn Pedley, a lecturer at Hull University, was about Tethyan Tertiary Carbonate Ramps.
A Yorkshire ammonite has been named after the Society's Treasurer, Felix Whitham, in a paper published in Palaeontology in 1989 (Vol 32, p 799-836). Authors J H Calloman and J K Wright named the fossil : Pseudocadoceras grewingki whithami. It was found in the Kellaways rock at South Cave.
Part 1 of a Palaeontographical Society monograph of English Callovian perisphinctid ammonites by B M Cox, published in 1988, includes photographs and descriptions of specimens from Felix Whitham's collection. These were collected from the Kellaways Beds at South Cave Station Quarry and South Newbald Quarry. The paper also contains a comprehensive survey of Callovian (Middle Jurassic) stratigraphy.
Part 3 of the hundredth volume of the Proceedings of the Geologists' Association is dedicated to two leading amateur geologists - Dennis Curry and Willy Wright (a life member of our Society). It includes an appreciation of their work by Jake Hancock and a stimulating paper by Willy Wright about ' Ideas in palaeontology : prejudice and judgement'.
Willy Wright's brother Ted, has contributed a chapter to a new book "Humber Perspectives", published by Hull University Press. He describes the discovery of the Ferriby boats and the development of archaeological studies in the region over the last 70 years, including the early influence of Tom Sheppard. Ted Wright is also an honorary member of our Society. The book also includes a chapter by John Catt about the Geology and relief of the area, which contains a comprehensive summary of the Quaternary Geology of the region.
Paul Taylor and Jon Todd describe bioimmured fossils from the Kimmeridge Clay of South Ferriby, in an article in Geology Today (vol 6, pt 5). Soft bodied organisms encrusting the oyster Deltoideum delta are preserved as impressions as other oysters attach themselves and grow. The bioimmured bryozoans and brachiopods are preserved as moulds or pyrite casts, and are revealed when the oysters are prised apart.
Sadly, after the membership list was compiled , we heard of the death of Professor H C Versey. He joined the Hull Geological Society in 1932 and was an honorary member of the Society. He lectured for many years at Leeds University and had been a member of the Yorkshire Geological Society for 75 years. He published many papers about East Yorkshire Geology, including papers about the Chalk, the Carstone, the Humber Warp, the Speeton Shell Bed and the Basement Clays. He also compiled bibliographies of Yorkshire Geology for the Y.G.S. Proceedings, taking over the task from Tom Sheppard in 1933. His best known local works were about the structural geology of eastern Yorkshire and north Lincolnshire.
A full obituary will appear in the Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society.
A new by-pass has just been opened at Market Weighton. Lynden Emery arranged with the contractors for members of the Society to visit the by-pass site during its construction in July 1990. A small anticline was exposed in a shallow cutting, at the base of Arras Hill. Beds of limestone and clay were logged and fossils collected. Dating of ammonites, belemnites and ostracods found indicates a Sinemurian (early Jurassic) age for these beds. Further up the hill, in a ditch beside the new road, the base of the Chalk was exposed. Beneath the Chalk was the Red Chalk, then red and orange pebbly clays and then a blue clay with orange patches. During a subsequent visit, Judith Bryce found a Dactylioceras tennuicostatum ammonite in a orange nodule in the blue clay; this indicates an early Toarcian age for the beds below the unconformity. A full report and log of the site will be published in the future. Many of the fossils collected have been donated to Hull Museum.
copyright Hull Geological Society 2021