An Upper Llandovery limestone overlying Hollybush Sandstone (Cambrian) in Hollybush Quarry, Malvern Hills

Abstract

SUMMARYNew exposures of Upper Llandovery and Cambrian strata are described from the southern Malvern Hills. The rocks occur in a small faulted outlier between Midsummer and Hollybush Hills, within the main Pre-Cambrian outcrop. The Cambrian is represented by a thin succession of Malvern Quartzite and Hollybush Sandstone and is overlain by an Upper Llandovery limestone with a basal conglomerate containing rounded pebbles of Hollybush Sandstone. The new exposures weaken the case for a major post-Llandoverian fault at the western boundary of the local Pre-Cambrian outcrop, but provide further evidence of an important phase of pre-Llandoverian tectonism in the Malvern area.Faunas of brachiopods, graptolites and conodonts from the Llandoverian limestone allow a correlation with the C5 substage of the shelly sequence, the griestoniensis graptolite zone and a position near the boundary of the celloni and amorphognathoides conodont zones.