Type Formation Other limestone, sandstone Primary Slate Unit of Craven Group | Thickness 120-620 m Region northern England Named for Forest of Bowland | |
Underlies Millstone Grit Group or Morridge Formation Overlies Pendleside Limestone Formation, Widmerpool Formation, Pentre Chert Formation, Cefn-y-Fedw Sandstone Formation, Hodderense Limestone Formation, Trawden Limestone Group, Malham Formation, Yoredale Group | ||
The Bowland Shale Formation is a Carboniferous geological formation of Asbian (Visean) to Yeadonian (Bashkirian) age. It is known from outcrop and subsurface borehole data in the north of England, the Isle of Man, parts of North Wales and the Midlands. It is an organic-rich shale which, according to the British Geological Survey, is the source rock where "oil and gas matured before migration to conventional fields in the East Midlands and the Irish Sea", for example, the Formby oil field. The Bowland Shale, together with other organic-rich Carboniferous shale units, is being considered for exploitation for shale gas.
In 2015, research by the University of Aberdeen discovered "high levels of selenium in rock samples from the Bowland shale"
References
Bowland Shale Formation Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA