| Computer Code: |
EASN |
Preferred Map Code: |
notEntered |
| Status Code: |
Full |
| Age range: |
Anglian Stage (QA)
— Ipswichian Stage (QI) |
| Lithological Description: |
Partly cemented, well sorted gravel and sand containing marine shells. The gravel is composed predominantly of limestone and dolostone of the Zechstein Group (formerly Magnesian Limestone) towards the base, with an increasing content upwards of Carboniferous rock types. Cheviot andesite, Borrowdale Volcanic Group rock types and dolerite. Also including sparse halleflinta, rhomb-porphyry and garnet-hornblende schist of supposed Scandinavian affinity. Twelve temperate genera of marine mollusc have been identified from the deposit, and borings by marine molluscs and annelid worms in the rock platform as well as in cobbles confirm that the deposit is in situ. |
| Definition of Lower Boundary: |
The beach gravel rests on a bevelled, subhorizontal platform, bored by marine molluscs, cut into limestones and dolostones of the Zechstein Group (formerly Magnesian Limestone) at about 30m above sea level. |
| Definition of Upper Boundary: |
Thought to be a planar horizontal or undulating unconformable contact with dark grey diamicton of the Blackhall Till Formation, but contact is obscured and inaccessible. |
| Thickness: |
4m |
| Geographical Limits: |
Coast of County Durham. |
| Parent Unit: |
British Coastal Deposits Group (COAS)
|
| Previous Name(s): |
Easington Formation [Obsolete Name and Code: Use EASN]
(-2163)
|
| Alternative Name(s): |
none recorded or not applicable
|
| Stratotypes: |
| Type Section |
A 300m long cliffline backing Shippersea Bay, north of the former Easington Colliery, County Durham, where the beach gravel crops out between 27 and 32m above sea level. Huddart and Glasser, 2002. |
| Reference(s): |
| Huddart, D. 2002. Skippersea Bay. In Huddart, D and Glasser, N F (editors), Quaternary of Northern England. Geological Conservation Review Series, No.25. [Peterborough: Joint Nature Conservation Committee.] 745pp. |
| Bridgland, D R, Horton, B P, and Innes, J B. 1999. The Quaternary of northeast England. Field Guide. Quaternary Research Assocation, London. |
| Thomas, G S P. 1999. Northern England. 91-98 in Bowen, D Q (Editor), A revised correlation of Quaternary and Neogene deposits in the British Isles. Geological Society Special Report No.23. |
| Francis, E A. 1970. Quaternary. 134-152 in Johnson, G A L, Geology of Durham County. [Newcastle: Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne.] 152pp. |
| Smith, D B and Francis, E A. 1967. Geology of the country between Durham and West Hartlepool. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Sheet 27 (England and Wales). |
| 1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used: |
|
E027
|
