Ironstone hematite fossil dug from the Stainton gravel beds

I excavated this piece of what i think is hematite containing the fossil shell that can be seen to the top middle of the image. The piece attracts a rare earth magnet.


           
                                                                

                                                     

Minerals recently found in upper Teesdale .

 

 

 

 

I found these minerals recently i find them fascinating, the first two images show crystals found in split geodes found in upper Teesdale,   The third image shows what seems to be some kind of melicaria commonly found in Mexico, this piece was found in upper Teesdale .

The two images above show a split rock found in the centre of an egg shaped geode, its coated in crystals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first image's show  split geode's containing what i think are quartz crystals both large and very small.
The last image shows the inside of the rock found in the egg shaped geode.

Yorks magnetic curb stones

On a recent visit to York i found that the curb stones appear to be Whin stone, and ide bet they originate from one of the Cleveland Dyke quarries between Stainton and Cliff rigg.  The image shows a rare earth magnet stuck to a curb stone not far from the Shambles,in York city centre.

The second image is the boothem area of york the curb stones tested here were also magnetic.
 

Report on visit to teesdale to test the magnetic properties of both the Cleveland Dyke and Great Whinn Sill

http://youtu.be/srZsAaVGukA

http://youtu.be/9SIDRbMaOYY


The two links above show video's taken boy Roger Curry a good friend who is helping me into both the Magnetic qualities of the Cleveland Dyke and the Stainton newly discovered Gravel beds. The video's are not great but the conditions where very bad at one point we had a visit from a Tornado!

They basically show me and Roger testing both the Cleveland Dyke and the Great Whinn sill at Coldberry (Cleveland Dyke outcrop) and Great Whinn Sill at High force, Teesdale, we tested both with rare earth magnets and lesser powered magnets, our conclusion was this - The outcrop of Cleveland Dyke at Coldberry although magnetic was in no way as magnetic as the Stainton quarry whin stone ( Basaltic andesite)  - The Great whinn sill  at High force again although magnetic showed a far lower magnetic attraction than that of the Whin stone from the Stainton quarry samples tested over the last year.

I have now tested a fifty mile stretch of the Cleveland Dyke from Teesdale to the east coast and have found in all cases that the Stainton Quarry Whinnstone is by far the most magnetic. 


                             For more info and images regarding my research into magnetic minerals please click the link below
                                              The magnetic properties of the Cleveland dyke in t...           

 

Magnetic sea wall at Staithes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I visited Staithes today on a day out with the kids and was surprised to find out from a local lad that the sea defence was made up of Larvikite from Norway.  I  was impelled to test its magnetic properties and found it to have equal attraction as the Stainton basaltic andesite, i believe the ingredient that links these two different rocks along with others is either Titan augite or Titonomagnatite.

Mesolithic human tibia shaft excavated from the Stainton gravel beds

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The tibia shaft shown in images 1 and 2 above i excavated from over two metres into the packed  Stainton gravel beds.
This tibia shaft has today 13,9,12 been identified as an ancient human tibia shaft by anthropologists from a local university.


The tibia's below belonged to a long dead Viking's from the yorvik excavations at york

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The Dorman museum in Middlesbrough now the only place i know of that could help, since Middlesbrough council removed all funding to Tees Archaeology, have been contacted and informed both of my discoveries ie the magnetic anomalies of the Stainton Quarry  basaltic andesite, and the Stainton gravel beds and there rich fossil content, dated by Geologists who have visited as probably 12 - 16000ybp as yet ive had no response.

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HISTORY OF A BECK: The Stainton gravel beds                                                                                                                                                                             Locations of excavations of the Stainton gravel beds - Google Maps

 

HISTORY OF A BECK: Human skull fragments excavated 

 

Cleveland dyke( basaltic andesite) v Great whin sill ( Dolorite )

Towards the close of Carboniferous Period some 295 million years ago (Ma), crustal extension caused by movement of the Earth’s tectonic plates allowed the emplacement of igneous intrusions of magma across much of northern England of a suite of tholeiitic dolerite intrusions. These were largely concordant with the strata of the existing country rock. On cooling, these crystallised and solidified to form the Great Whin Sill.
It underlies much of south and east Northumberland and the Durham Coalfield. Its maximum known thickness of around 70 metres occurs in the North Pennines.
Surface and subsurface records of the Great Whin reveal it is not always concordant over wide areas and often rises and falls in the stratigraphical succession in marked leaps and gentle transgressions different levels.
Studies of the petrology of the dolerites of the Whin Sill complex have revealed significant differences between the Little Whin and the Great Whin. The Little Whin Sill is olivine-bearing and believed to be composed of an early differentiate of the Whin dolerite magma. On the other hand, the Great Whin, non-olivine-bearing and slightly density graded, is a later differentiate of the Whin magma.
Two separate periods of Whin dolerite injection are confirmed by studies of vitrinite reflectance over the Alston Block where two periods of Whin contact metamorphism have been recognized. The two periods of Whin dolerite emplacement form part of the end-Carboniferous earth movements in northern England. They can be shown to have occurred between a period of compression from a W-SW direction and later gentle doming of the Alston Block near the Westphalian-Stephanian boundary, dated about 300-295 Ma.
The lithology is notable in many respects, including well developed pegmatite segregations which can be found in Upper Teesdale. Late stage hydrothermal mineralisation has filled the joints with pectolite. The dolerite has been carbonated as metasomatic selvages into veins and joints and other flaws to produce 'White Whin'. Thermal metamorphism of the country rock in the contact zone produced coarse grained marbles within the aureole in a small number of places in Teesdale.
Disused roadstone quarries along the course of the sill offer sections for its interpretation.


Tertiary
During the Tertiary, the British land mass drifted northwards from 40°N to its present latitude. It was also moved eastwards by the widening of the Atlantic Ocean and there was violent volcanic activity over north west Britain. It was in this period that the Cleveland dyke was formed, originating from volcanic activity near the Scottish island of Mull. The highlands and lowlands of Britain assumed their present relative positions by the late Tertiary period, about 2 million years ago.^[4][2]

The eastern termination of the Cleveland Dyke on Fylingdales Moor, North Yorkshire, has been mapped by ground magnetic surveys. Two distinct anomalies have been identified, one of which is directly along strike from known outcrops of the dyke. The other, not yet fully defined, lies about 100 m farther south. In contrast to the well-known and commonly surveyed outcrop on nearby Goathland Moor, but in common with perhaps most British members of the Palaeogene Hebridean dyke swarms, the anomalies on Fylingdales Moor are caused by reversely magnetized bodies. The nature of the transition between the magnetization directions, which presumably represent differences in age, could be investigated by magnetic surveys in the forested area between the Fylingdales Moor and Goathland Moor. 
 

Geological survey

1:50 000 scale superficial deposits description: Till, Devensian - Diamicton. Superficial Deposits formed up to 2 million years ago in the Quaternary Period. Local environment previously dominated by ice age conditions.

Setting: ice age conditions. These rocks were formed in cold periods with Ice Age glaciers scouring the landscape and depositing moraines of till with outwash sand and gravel deposits from seasonal and post glacial melt waters.

Above is the latest British geological survey explanation as to what is beneath us here in the south west area of Cleveland.




                                                                     

Leven bank deposits

This large excavation on the banks of the river leven just north west of leven bank, seems to show the same red alluvial deposit as at Stainton and all other locations i have excavated at various sites in the south west area of Cleveland, north east England.

The houses in the above image are to the south west edge of ingalby barwick.

Sand intrusion in the red clay.

Another sand intrusion of witch there are many.

Close up of the clay

I am not sure what the project is yet maybe a bridge, but the superficial deposits are in my mind certainly not boulder clay.

This image shows what i believe to be Triassic mudstone amongst the red clay, as it is found 3.5 miles south east at Stainton as well as at all other locations Ive excavated , in the south west area of Cleveland.

The southern entrance to the excavation.

Fossill slabs

1 - Stainton gravel bed fossils

 

 

2- The piece above i believe could be trace fossils of stromatolites.

 

 

3- The rest apeare to be Jurassic slabs containing mainly Gryphaea.

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7- The piece above is strange it i first thought was a worn ammonite, but ime not so sure now, and the fact its made up of other fossils has me puzzled.