A note on karst surfaces that bound Middle Jurassic (Ravenscar Group) sandstones on the North Yorkshire Moors

We present an account of previously undescribed karst surfaces that bound Middle Jurassic sandstones in North Yorkshire. Three morphologies have been recognized: solution pits, solution runnels and décantation flutings. All three features were produced by subaerial drainage across the outcrop of sandstone which leached framework feldspars. Archaeological monuments, themselves consisting of Ravenscar Group sandstones and erected within the last 1400 years, also display the same type of karst features. This suggests that the dissolution features that bound adjacent natural sandstone outcrops are Holocene in age. Subaerial dissolution is therefore believed to be amongst the latest weathering events to have affected Ravenscar Group sandstones on the North Yorkshire Moors.