The Crag Group is a

geological group In geology, a group is a lithostratigraphy, lithostratigraphic Stratigraphic unit, unit consisting of a series of related Geological formation, formations that have been classified together to form a group. Formations are the fundamental unit of ...

outcropping in

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

, England and adjacent areas of the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

. Its age ranges from approximately 4.4 to 0.478 million years BP, spanning the late

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

epochs. It comprises a range of marine and estuarine sands, gravels, silts and clays deposited in a relatively shallow-water, tidally-dominated marine embayment on the western margins of the North Sea basin. The sands are characteristically dark green from

glauconite Glauconite is an iron potassium phyllosilicate ( mica group) mineral of characteristic green color which is very friable and has very low weathering resistance. It crystallizes with a monoclinic geometry. Its name is derived from the Greek ...

but weather bright orange, with

haematite Hematite (), also spelled as haematite, is a common iron oxide compound with the formula, Fe2O3 and is widely found in rocks and soils. Hematite crystals belong to the rhombohedral lattice system which is designated the alpha polymorph of . ...

'iron pans' forming. The

lithology The lithology of a rock unit is a description of its physical characteristics visible at outcrop, in hand or core samples, or with low magnification microscopy. Physical characteristics include colour, texture, grain size, and composition. Lit ...

of the lower part of the Group is almost entirely

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

. The highest formation in the Group, the Wroxham Crag, contains over 10% of far-travelled lithologies, notably

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock that was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tecton ...

and vein quartz from the Midlands,

igneous rock Igneous rock ( ), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rocks are formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. The magma can be derived from partial ...

s from Wales, and

chert Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a prec ...

from the

Upper Greensand Greensand or green sand is a sand or sandstone which has a greenish color. This term is specifically applied to shallow marine sediment that contains noticeable quantities of rounded greenish grains. These grains are called ''glauconies'' and co ...

of southeastern England. This exotic rock component was introduced by rivers such as the

Bytham River The Bytham River is said to have been one of the great Pleistocene rivers of central and eastern England until it was destroyed by the advancing ice sheets of the Anglian Glaciation around 450,000 years ago. The river is named after Castle By ...

and Proto-Thames. The constituent formations of the Crag Group are the Coralline Crag (mid to late Pliocene); the Red Crag (late Pliocene / early Pleistocene); the Norwich Crag (early Pleistocene) and the Wroxham Crag (early to Middle Pleistocene). The sedimentary record is incomplete, leading to difficulties in correlating and dating sequences The term Crag was first used in a geological sense by R.C. Taylor in 1823, a word commonly used in Suffolk to designate any shelly sand or gravel.Woodward, HB (1881): The Geology of the Country around Norwich. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom; p.32

References

Geological groups of the United Kingdom Geologic formations of England Neogene England East Anglia {{England-stub

See also

References