New Red Sandstone

New Red Sandstone Supergroup
Stratigraphic range: Permian-Triassic ~300–200 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Cliff of New Red Sandstone in Oddicombe, Devon
Type	Supergroup
Sub-units	Mercia Mudstone Group Sherwood Sandstone Group Aylesbeare Mudstone Group Exeter Group
Underlies	Penarth Group
Overlies	Unconformity with folded Devonian and Carboniferous rocks
Thickness	up to 2,000 m (6,600 ft)
Lithology
Primary	Sandstone
Other	Arkose, conglomerate, breccio-conglomerate
Location
Country	United Kingdom
Extent	Originally in Scotland, range extended to all red-bed sequences of Permian and Triassic age in southwest England, and parts of northwest and northeast England.

The New Red Sandstone, chiefly in British geology, is composed of beds of red sandstone and associated rocks laid down throughout the Permian (300 million years ago) to the end of the Triassic (about 200 million years ago), that underlie the Jurassic-Triassic age Penarth Group.^[1] The name distinguishes it from the Old Red Sandstone which is largely Devonian in age, and with which it was originally confused due to their similar composition.

Its upper layers consist of mudstones, but most of the formation consists of reddish to yellowish sandstones, interbedded with rare evaporite minerals such as halite and gypsum. These indicate deposition within a hot and arid palaeo-environment, such as a desert or sabkha.^[2]