The Market Weighton Axis is a geological

Geology

Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

 feature which forms the south-eastern part of Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The feature goes under a number of names such as 'block' or 'area' while the name of the town, Market Weighton

Market Weighton

Market Weighton is a small town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is one of the main market towns in the East Yorkshire Wolds and lies midway between Hull and York, about from either one...

 is retained. 'Block' seems to be the most modern version but the most distinctive and widely known is 'axis'.

It takes the form of a ridge of tectonic uplift

Tectonic uplift

Tectonic uplift is a geological process most often caused by plate tectonics which increases elevation. The opposite of uplift is subsidence, which results in a decrease in elevation. Uplift may be orogenic or isostatic.-Orogenic uplift:...

 which has progressed during the period of deposition of the newer rocks from the at least the end of the Triassic

Triassic

The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 250 to 200 Mya . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic. Both the start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events...

 (205 million years ago) onwards. Its rise has more or less kept pace with the deposition so that on the north and south sides of it, each stratum thins to nothing and in most cases, picks up again on the other side.

During the Carboniferous

Carboniferous

The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Devonian Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Permian Period, about 299.0 ± 0.8 Mya . The name is derived from the Latin word for coal, carbo. Carboniferous means "coal-bearing"...

, the relationship between the Market Weighton Axis and the London-Brabant Massif affected the weaker rocks between them so influencing the geography at the surface. Features in the intervening district were the Widmerpool Gulf

Widmerpool Gulf

The Widmerpool Gulf is a name given to a sedimentary basin that existed as an area of open water during the Early Carboniferous . It is named after Widmerpool, near Nottingham and was an extension eastwards as far as Lincolnshire, of the North Staffordshire Gulf...

 and the equatorial swamps which led to the deposition of the Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire coalfields.

External links

• The Market Weighton Block's position (go to page 3) in the North of England of the Carboniferous
  Carboniferous
  The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Devonian Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Permian Period, about 299.0 ± 0.8 Mya . The name is derived from the Latin word for coal, carbo. Carboniferous means "coal-bearing"...
  
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• exposed geology