The type of environment in which both the Lower and Upper Quarried Limestone Members formed. Warm, shallow (10-20 metres deep), clear sea. The sea was a continental shelf sea deepening to the west. Patch reefs developed in the quieter water.

The limestones are generally composed of the skeletal remains of crinoids, brachiopods, corals, bryozoans and algae, set in a  matrix of carbonate mud or crystalline calcite cement. Both the Quarried Limestones have massive (thick) beds. The occasional muddy layer would have been produced by the influx of muddy sediment from nearby land, probably as a result of a storm,

Organisms and their fossilised forms that are typical of Silurian (Wenlock) age limestones of the shallow water areas.

Slight swell.
Air temperature 29’C
Very high UV
Winds light from the SE
Day length 21.9 hours

The day length is shorter as the Earth was rotating faster in the Silurian. The rotational speed is very slowly reducing due to the breaking effect of the gravitational pull of the Moon, whereby angular momentum is transferred from the Earth to the Moon.

Note the deeper water to the west of a line through present day Telford and Ludlow locations.