Templeton Geomorphology

[twiglet]

Hi, I assist occasionally at the Templeton dig, and have often wondered about this sites origin.
If it is just a fossil sinkhole, why is it so far out on the limestone plateau, away from the
sandstone border ? Is there something else going on here, has it formed from below (water
under pressure from the Wookey system) The same question could equally apply two Twin T`s.

 

[graham]

Cannot speak for Templeton, 'cos I've not looked at it in this regard, but there are a number of mechanisms by which features like that can form out on the limestone & yes some are by solution downwards & some are by solution upwards.

Hum, not very helpful, sorry.

 

[Andy Farrant]

Try looking at any scallops.... but I doubt if it was upward flow. There are plenty of examples of >60 m deep shafts/collapses/infilled sinkholes both on Mendip, South wales and Derbyshire. Don't forget, there may have once been a cover of impermeable rocks (like over at Wurt pit) long since gone, which may have focussed drainage.

 

[twiglet]

I think the sharp,pointed end of a scallop is the "upstream" end isn`t it ?

 

[martinm]

I think the sharp,pointed end of a scallop is the "upstream" end isn`t it ?

Not necessarily pointed, but yes the sharp end is at the upstream end  where the water turbulence is the greatest. You can see similar features in many stream / river beds. 

 

[Elaine]

I thought that Templeton was originally a perpendicular fault to the big thrust fault (can't remember its name) that runs just north of it. It certainly has a long thin profile, and the ends where it peters away into nothing tend to be filled with (calcite?) crystals.
A school of thought is that it became a good sink hole for the glacial melt lakes that pooled in the clay at the time (per Willie Stanton?) I should be looking this up to be more accurate but I am meant to be working 
Of course, the whole thing is leading to the master system that links Swildons, Eastwater and St Cuthberts etc to Wookey Hole. 

 

[Duncan Price]

I thought that Templeton was originally a perpendicular fault to the big thrust fault (can't remember its name) that runs just north of it.

Southern overthrust.  We think that the current end of Wookey lies on it.

 

[mrodoc]

And presumably in warmer periods meltwater on top of the permafrost found its way into it.