Abstract

The Carboniferous in NW Europe shows more than 30 large transgressions (with intervening regressions) up to the middle part of Westphalian C. Marginal areas of deposition show stratigraphical breaks between each transgressive cycle. Each large transgression was not continuous but appears to have been pulsed, with each small transgressive pulse reaching further than its predecessor. The rates of transgression are assessed at several different levels in the Carboniferous. Many of the features found in NW Europe appear to have been of general occurrence.