| Computer Code: |
BEL |
Preferred Map Code: |
BeL |
| Status Code: |
Full |
| Age range: |
Priabonian Age (GI)
— Rupelian Age (GR) |
| Lithological Description: |
Limestones and clayey limestones intercalated with lime-rich muds and clays. Includes impersistent peloidal limestones and calcretes. |
| Definition of Lower Boundary: |
The basal contact is gradational or sharp and erosive into principally silts and clays within the members of the underlying Headon Hill Formation. |
| Definition of Upper Boundary: |
Gradational or sharp contact with clays and silts of the Bembridge Marls Member (Bouldnor Formation). As originally defined (Insole and Daley, 1985) the formation included about 2m of lime-rich clays and clay above the highest limestone. These are now assigned to the overlying Bembridge Marls Member (Bouldnor Formation) by Daley and Edwards (1990). |
| Thickness: |
Up to 9m. |
| Geographical Limits: |
Throughout the northern part of the Isle of Wight. |
| Parent Unit: |
Solent Group (SOLT)
|
| Previous Name(s): |
Bembridge Limestone [Obsolete Name and Code: Use BEL]
(-2595)
|
| Alternative Name(s): |
none recorded or not applicable
|
| Stratotypes: |
| Type Section |
Cliff section at Whitecliff Bay, Isle of Wight where 8.5m of pale brown to white fossiliferous limestones and lime-rich mudstones in three cycles are seen. Daley and Edwards (1990); Insole and Daley (1985). |
| Reference(s): |
| Curry, D, Adams, C G, Boulter, M C, Dilley, F C, Eames, F E, Funnell, B M, and Wells, M K. 1978. A Correlation of Tertiary rocks in the British Isles. Geological Society of London Special Publication, Vol. 12, 1-72. |
| Insole, A and Daley, B. 1985. A revision of the lithostratigraphy of the Late Eocene and Early Oligocene strata of the Hampshire Basin, Southern England. Tertiary Research, Vol.7, 67-100. |
| Armenteros, I, Daley, B, and García, E. 1997. Lacustrine and palustrine facies in the Bembridge Limestone (late Eocene, Hampshire Basin) of the Isle of Wight, southern England. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Vol. 128, 111-132. |
| Daley, B. 1999. Palaeogene sections of the Isle of Wight. A revision of their description and significance in the light of research undertaken over recent decades. Tertiary Research, Vol.19, 1-69. |
| Daley, B, and Edwards, N. 1990. The Bembridge Limestone (Late Eocene), Isle of Wight, southern England: a stratigraphical revision. Tertiary Research, Vol. 12, 51-64. |
| Gale, A S, Huggett, J M, Pälike, H, Laurie, E, Hailwood, E A, and Hardenbol, J. 2006. Correlation of Eocene-Oligocene marine and continental records: orbital cyclicity, magnetostratigraphy and sequence stratigraphy of the Solent Group, Isle of Wight, UK. Journal of the Geological Society of London, Vol. 163, 401-415. |
| Hooker, J J, Grimes, S T, Mattey, D P, Collinson, M E, and Sheldon, N. 2009. Refined correlation of the UK Late Eocene - Early Oligocene Solent Group and of its climate history. 179-196 in The Late Eocene Earth-Hothouse, Icehouse, and Impacts. Koeberl, C, and Montanari, A (editors). Special Paper 452. (Geological Society of America) |
| Melville, R V and Freshney, E C. 1982. British Regional Geology: the Hampshire Basin and adjoining areas (4th Edition).(London ,HMSO for Institute of Geological Sciences). |
| Insole, A, Daley, B, and Gale, A. 1998. The Isle of Wight. Geologists’ Association Guide. No. 60. (The Geologists’ Association.) |
| White, H J O. 1921. A short account of the geology of the Isle of Wight. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, (1994 reprint). |
| 1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used: |
|
E330
E331
|
