Bowland Shale

Bowland Shale
Stratigraphic range: Visean to Bashkirian
Type	Formation
Unit of	Craven Group
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
Thickness	120-620 m
Lithology
Primary	shale
Other	limestone, sandstone
Location
Region	northern England
Country	United Kingdom
Extent	Isle of Man, northern England, parts of North Wales and the Midlands
Type section
Named for	Forest of Bowland

The Bowland Shale or 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.[1] 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",[2] for example, the Formby oil field.[3] The Bowland Shale, together with other organic-rich Carboniferous shale units, is being considered for exploitation for shale gas.[4]

In 2015, research by the University of Aberdeen discovered "high levels of selenium in rock samples from the Bowland shale".[5] In May 2022, a paper published in the Energy Policy journal described the extraction of shale gas at Bowland shale as a "carbon bomb"—a fossil fuel extraction project with the potential to emit more than 1Gt of CO₂ over its lifetime.[6]

See also

• Geology of Lancashire
• Shale gas in the United Kingdom
• Unconventional (oil & gas) reservoir

References

1. Bowland Shale Formation. BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units (Report). British Geological Survey. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
2. The Carboniferous Bowland Shale gas study: geology and resource estimation (PDF) (Report). DECC. 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
3. The hydrocarbon prospectivity of Britain's onshore basins (PDF) (Report). DECC. 2010. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
4. The Unconventional Hydrocarbon Resources of Britain's Onshore Basins - Shale Gas (PDF) (Report). 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
5. Parnell, John; Brolly, Connor; Spinks, Sam; Bowden, Stephen (March 2016). "Selenium enrichment in Carboniferous Shales, Britain and Ireland: Problem or opportunity for shale gas extraction?". Applied Geochemistry. 66: 82–87. Bibcode:2016ApGC...66...82P. doi:10.1016/j.apgeochem.2015.12.008. hdl:2164/5310.
6. Kühne, Kjell; Bartsch, Nils; Driskell Tate, Ryan; Higson, Julia; Habet, André (12 May 2022). ""Carbon Bombs" - Mapping key fossil fuel projects". Energy Policy. 166: 112950. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112950. S2CID 248756651.