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Earth Science Conservation Review
| Knockaraven Townland quarry | Tyrone |
| Site number: | 319 | File Number: | H36 |
| ESCC: | ED | ||
| Locality Type: | Quarry (disused) | Status: | ESCR |
| Grid Reference: | H33526452 Centroid | ||
| Google maps: | 54.52822,-7.48256 | ||
| County: | Tyrone | Council area: | Fermanagh & Omagh District Council |
| Period: | Devonian | ||
| Stages: | Famennian, Frasnian | ||
| Lithostrat: | Fintona Group, Shanmullagh Formation (Form Blm) | ||
| Site Description | |
|---|---|
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| Description: | |
About 5m of highly sheared rock is exposed in the quarry face excavated into this rock knoll. The top 4m consists of inter- bedded purple-red and brown silty fine-grained calcareous sandstone and muddy siltstones in which bedding is difficult to distinguish. Beds of purple-red siltstone containing numerous clasts of green mudstone are very common. The lowest 1m in the pit consists exclusively of laminated dark and light green mudstones which are both continuous and disrupted to produce thin breccias.
 Two samples of green mudstone from the quarry were processed and yielded very sparse, poorly preserved miospores, including Apiculiretusispora sp., Bascaudaspora collicula (Playford) Higgs, Clayton & Keegan 1988, and Emphanisporites spp. A much more abundant assemblage of well preserved miospores obtained from loose blocks of green mudstone, that had been extracted from the quarry and used as farmfill at a site (H34746002) 3km south of Dromore and 5.5km south-south-east of the quarry, included the following forms: Aurorospora spp., Bascaudaspora sp., Densosporites sp., Dictyotriletes sp., Emphanisporites sp., ? Hymenozonotriletes sp., and Samarisporites sp. | |
| Notes: | |
For general information and reference list on the Shanmullagh Formation with respect to miospore localities see Key Site 1151 - Shanmullagh Formation; Miospore localities. For general information and reference list on the Shanmullagh Formation with respect to stratotype see Key Site 1150 - Shanmullagh Formation; Stratotype localities. For general information and reference list on the Devonian System in N. Ireland see Key Site 1147 - The Devonian System in N. Ireland - Introduction. | |
| Keywords | |
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| Rocks: | Breccia, Mudstone, Sand, Sandstone, Siltstone |
| Fossil Groups: | Miospore, Miospores |
| Access | |
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| Approach: | 2.25km northwest of Dromore. |
| References (2) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Mitchell, W.I. & Owens, B., 1990. The geology of the western part of the Fintona Block: evolution of Carboniferous basins. Geological Magazine, vol. 127 pt. 5, pp.407-426. | |||
| Simon, J.B., 1984. Sedimentation and tectonic setting of the lower Old Red Sandstone of the Fintona and Curlew Mountain districts. Irish Journal of Earth Sciences, vol. 6, pp.213-228. | |||
| Map(s): | GSNI (1982a) 1:50,000 Sheet 45 (Enniskillen); GSNI (1982b) 1:50,000 Sheet 46 (Clogher); O.S. 1:50,000 Sheet 18 (Enniskillen). | ||
| Record type: | Environment Serv. GIS, ESCR report | ||
| Entered by: | Doughty, P.J. | ||
| Enlander, I., Dempster, M. & Doughty, P., 2026. Knockaraven Townland quarry, County Tyrone, site details. [In] Earth Science Conservation Review. https://www.habitas.org.uk/escr/site.php?item=319. Accessed on 2026-11-06. |
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