Little Haven - The Settlands panorama - geological interpretation

Structural geology of Little Haven and The Settlands

The cliffs from Little Haven to Broad Haven (and northward) display a spectacular range of geological structures, folding, faulting and thrusting, mainly in the Lower Coal Measures. The relatively weak mudstone and shale-dominated sequences show much incompetent deformation: tight, thrusted and overturned folds, in contrast to the thicker, stronger, sandstones which have formed relatively open and concentric folds.

The cliffs at the east end of the The Settlands bay display a series of complexly thrusted, folded and faulted Lower Coal Measures rocks. The folds are overturned to the north, becoming nearly recumbent (low-angle fold axes) near the northern headland, known as 'The Rain'. The complexity of the folding is mostly due to the predominance of weak mudstones and shales which undergo incompetent deformation, in contrast to the open folding in the strong sandstone Fox Hole anticline in previous photos.

This is a generalised geological interpretation of the visible structures in the previous photo:
www.ipernity.com/doc/earthwatcher/49995364

There are two main thrusts and several smaller thrust splays which result in repetition of the strata, mainly around the horizon of the Amman Marine Band. The weaker mud-rich rocks have deformed and thickened into the axial crests of the folds and usually display a degree of axial planar cleavage. The folds are mainly overturned anticlines; the synclines have been cut out by thrusting. The small anticline visible on the right may possibly be comprised of the uppermost beds of the Fox Hole sandstone, but the correlation is very uncertain.

See notes for links to detailed views.

The background photo is a panoramic view consisting of three landscape photos stiched together in Affinity Photo sofware. Interpretation linework carried out using Affinity Designer software.