Sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Kellaways Sand Member (Lower Callovian), Burythorpe, North Yorkshire, UK

In the Burythorpe area of the Howardian Hills, located on the northern margin of the Market Weighton High, the Callovian succession is represented only by Lower Callovian sediments. These belong to the Kellaways Sand Member (Kellaways Formation), up to 12 m thick, but thinning southwards to 5 m. This contrasts with the more complete Callovian succession (Osgodby Formation) on the Yorkshire coast (Cleveland Basin) which is up to 32.5 m thick. At Burythorpe Quarry the Kellaways Sand Member has yielded palynomorphs and ammonites confirming an Early Callovian (Koenigi Zone) age with depositional hiatuses above and below. The sequence consists of a yellow-white, poorly cemented, fine-to medium grained, unimodal uncemented sand (moulding sand) with sparse grey clay beds and laminae, in marked contrast to the broadly coeval Red Cliff Rock Member (Osgodby Formation) of the Cleveland Basin. The depositional environment is interpreted as a tidally influenced shallow sea on the margin of the Market Weighton High, in a shallow sub-tidal regime, similar to the sub-tidal sand-mud lithofacies in the Heligoland region of the present-day North Sea. Winnowing of the sand in highly mobile substrate resulted in a unimodal grain size, lack of impurities, and sparse shelly- and ichnofaunas. However, during quieter water phases, grey clay laminae were deposited at the base of channels, allowing colonization of the substrate by burrowing ichnofauna and deposition of palynomorphs. Sparse, calcite-cemented tabular beds with a benthic shelly fauna, ammonites, Planolites burrows and mudstone rip-up clasts are interpreted as the deposits of periodic storm events. The marked local variation in thickness of the Kellaways Sand Member in the Howardian Hills is probably due to synsedimentary east–west-trending faulting related to the Flamborough Fault Zone.