A feature of the geology of England, the Needwood Basin extends beneath the eastern part of the Midlands county of Staffordshire.
It is a depositional basin which was initiated during the Permian period and continued to receive sediment during the Triassic period and perhaps thereafter.
Up to 600m of Permo-Triassic strata are recorded from the basin which is partially defined by the Sandon Fault to the west and the Burton Fault to the east.
[1] It is flanked in part to the southwest by the Cannock Coalfield and to the southeast by the Warwickshire Coalfield.
The known Permo-Triassic stratigraphic sequence is thus (uppermost, youngest at top):[2]