Hanging Rocks Formation

The Hanging Rocks Formation is a geologic formation in Leicestershire, and is the youngest and smallest of the Maplewell Group and the larger Charnian Supergroup which it is a part of. Due to this, and the fact that the rocks are not well exposed at both the top and base, there have been no Ediacaran fossils found to date, unlike the two underlying Bradgate and Beacon Hill Formations.

Dating

Despite the poor exposure of the formation, scientists were able to collect zircon crystals from the lower parts of the formation, allowing them to perform zircon U–Pb dating, which recovered a date of, close to the Bradgate Formations top age of 557 Ma. It is noted that the top of the formation is capped at a zircon age of roughly 550 Ma, which is just before the first formations of the Nama assemblage were deposited.