Table of Contents

Contributors vii

Acknowledgements ix

About the Companion Website xi

1 Introduction to the Field Guide 1
Jim Best & Paul B. Wignall

2 The Shannon Basin: Structural Setting and Evolution 16
John Graham

3 Basin Models 35
Paul B. Wignall & Jim Best

4 Lower Carboniferous of the Shannon Basin Region 48
Ian D. Somerville

5 Viséan Coral Biostromes and Karsts of the Burren 79
Ian D. Somerville

6 The Clare Shales 97
Paul B. Wignall, Ian D. Somerville & Karen Braithwaite

7 Architecture of a Distributive Submarine Fan: The Ross Sandstone Formation 112
David R. Pyles & Lorna J. Strachan

8 Evolving Depocentre and Slope: The Gull Island Formation 174
Lorna J. Strachan & David R. Pyles

9 The Tullig and Kilkee Cyclothems in Southern County Clare 240
Jim Best, Paul B. Wignall, Eleanor J. Stirling, Eric Obrock & Alex Bryk

10 The Tullig and Kilkee Cyclothems of Northern County Clare 329
Paul B. Wignall, Jim Best, Jeff Peakall & Jessica Ross

11 The Younger Namurian Cyclothems around Spanish Point 350
Paul B. Wignall & Jim Best

Appendix: List of GigaPan Images 361

References 362

Index 371

About the Author

Jim Best holds the Jack and Richard Threet Chair in Sedimentary Geology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, and has research interests in process sedimentology and the dynamics of alluvial, lacustrine, deltaic and deep-sea environments. His work concerns experimental research and field studies in both modern and ancient environments, including fieldwork in Argentina, Bangladesh, Canada, Cambodia, Chile, New Zealand and the UK.

Paul Wignall is Professor of palaeoenvironments at the University of Leeds, UK, and his principal research interests lie in the origin and characteristics of mass extinction events in the geological record. He has also pioneered research in mudrocks and palaeoenvironmental change in ancient oceans, and has conducted field work across the globe, including Canada, China, Greenland, Svalbard, Poland, Tibet, USA and the UK.

Jim Best and Paul Wignall have also led student, academic and industrial field trips to, as well as conducted research in, the Shannon Basin of Western Ireland for over 25 years.