The age and composition of the Whin Sill and the related dikes of the north of England

Abstract

The system of intrusive sheets in the Lower Carboniferous formations of the north of England, familiar to geologists throughout the world as the Great Whin Sill, has a voluminous early literature which it is unnecessary to summarize here. It will be sufficient to refer to the classical papers by Topley and Lebour on the field relationships (1) and by Teall on the detailed petrography (4), each of which contains an ample bibliography of the earlier literature. The most recent general account is by Prof. E. J. Garwood (9), who contributed a careful discussion of the evidence bearing on the period of intrusion.Teall's great paper closely followed on one devoted to some of the dikes of the north of England (3), and in it he drew attention to the remarkable petrographical Similarity between the rocks of the Heft and High Green dikes and that of the Whin Sill (4, p. 656).