Little Haven - The Settlands; recumbent fold, thrusts, and overturned bedding - geological interpretation

Structural geology of Little Haven and The Settlands

The cliffs from Little Haven to Broad Haven (and northward) display a spectacular range of geological structures, folding, faulting and thrusting, mainly in the Lower Coal Measures. The relatively weak mudstone and shale-dominated sequences show much incompetent deformation: tight, thrusted and overturned folds, in contrast to the thicker, stronger, sandstones which have formed relatively open and concentric folds.

The cliffs at the east end of The Settlands bay display a series of complexly thrusted, folded and faulted Lower Coal Measures rocks. The folds are overturned to the north, becoming nearly recumbent (low-angle fold axes) near the northern headland, known as 'The Rain', seen here on the left. The complexity of the folding is mostly due to the predominance of weak mudstones and shales which undergo incompetent deformation, in contrast to the open folding in the strong sandstone Fox Hole anticline in previous photos, and in the less disturbed but overturned sandstone sequence on the left of this photo.

The principal structure in the central region of the photo is a nearly recumbent fold with several associated thrusts. There are two main thrusts and several smaller thrust splays which result in repetition of the strata, mainly around the horizon of the Amman Marine Band. Yellow arrows indicate the 'way up', younging direction, of the beds.

Interpretation linework carried out using Affinity Designer software.

More detailed view here:


This is a generalised geological interpretation of the previous photo here: