Age of the Eycott Volcanic Group and its conformable relationship to the Skiddaw Slates in the English Lake District

Abstract

An earliest Llanvirn age is established on micropalaeontological grounds for the interbedded lava–pelite sequence at the base of the Binsey Volcanic Formation in the northern Lake District. The northern volcanic sequence, here termed the Eycott Volcanic Group, is earlier than, and chemically distinct from, the main Borrowdale Volcanic Group. The evidence precludes a regional unconformity between the Skiddaw Slates and the overlying volcanic rocks, but is compatible with the hypothesis that the vulcanicity occurred in an island arc environment.