The Micheldever Syncline is one of a series of parallel east-west trending
fold
Fold, folding or foldable may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Fold'' (album), the debut release by Australian rock band Epicure
*Fold (poker), in the game of poker, to discard one's hand and forfeit interest in the current pot
*Above ...
s in the
Cretaceous chalk of
Hampshire. It lies at the western end of the
South Downs, immediately to the north of the
Stockbridge Anticline and east of
Salisbury Plain
Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies wi ...
.
Structure
The fold axis runs for around from north-west of
Andover
Andover may refer to:
Places Australia
* Andover, Tasmania
Canada
* Andover Parish, New Brunswick
* Perth-Andover, New Brunswick
United Kingdom
* Andover, Hampshire, England
** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station
United States
* Ando ...
in the west, through
Barton Stacey
Barton Stacey is a village and undulating civil parish, which includes the hamlets of Bransbury, Newton Stacey, Drayton and Cocum, in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England, centred about south-east of Andover. It is bounded to the n ...
,
Micheldever and
East Stratton
East Stratton is an estate village in the parish of Micheldever at the entrance to the landscaped grounds of Stratton Park, some eight miles northeast of Winchester, Hampshire, England. Both park and village demonstrate the evolution of a landsc ...
, towards
Preston Candover in the east.
The central area of the fold axis is followed by the valley of the
River Dever, which turns south-west at
Bransbury
Bransbury is a hamlet in Hampshire, England, part of the parish of Barton Stacey. The nearest village is Barton Stacey (where the 2011 census was included), halfway between Winchester and Andover; there is a junction for Bransbury on the A303 tow ...
to cut across the structure and the Stockbridge Anticline to the south.
Parallel folds to the south include the Stockbridge Anticline and the
Winchester-King's Somborne Syncline. As with other nearby folds, the structure is controlled by movement of fault blocks within the
Jurassic strata below.
See also
*
List of geological folds in Great Britain
This is a list of the named geological folds affecting the rocks of Great Britain and the Isle of Man.
Terminology
See the main article on folds for a fuller treatment of fold types and nomenclature but in brief, an anticline is an arch-like fol ...
References
Geology of Hampshire
Syncline
In structural geology, a syncline is a fold with younger layers closer to the center of the structure, whereas an anticline is the inverse of a syncline. A synclinorium (plural synclinoriums or synclinoria) is a large syncline with superimpose ...
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