Harwich Formation | |
---|---|
Stratigraphic range: Ypresian | |
Type | Formation |
Unit of | Thames Group |
Sub-units | Swanscombe Member, Tilehurst Member, Harwich Member, Oldhaven Beds, Blackheath Member, Hales Clay |
Underlies | London Clay Formation |
Overlies | Lambeth Group |
Thickness | <2-24 m |
Lithology | |
Primary | sand, silt & clay |
Other | gravel |
Location | |
Region | southeastern England |
Country | United Kingdom |
Extent | London Basin |
Type section | |
Named for | Harwich |
The Harwich Formation is a geological formation found in the London Basin of southeastern England. It is Ypresian (early Eocene) in age. It lies unconformably on the Lambeth Group over most of its extent, but may overlie either the Thanet Formation or the Chalk Group to the south. It is overlain by the London Clay Formation. [1] [2]
The formation is subdivided into several members.
The Swanscombe Member is the youngest member recognised within the Harwich Formation. It is a thin unit, generally less than 2 m thick, but shows a northward increase up to greater than 10 m locally. It is glauconitic, generally markedly so. Lithologically it consists of a mixture of sands, silts and clays, locally with shells and lignite. It typically has a gravelly base. It was deposited in a mid to inner shelf marine environment. [3]
The Tilehurst Member is regarded as a local variant of the Oldhaven Member by the BGS [4] but as a separate unit by other workers. It is found to the west and northwest of London. It consists of glauconitic silt, sandy silt and sandy clayey silt, with sand layers in the form of thin laminae. The unit is typically about 2 m thick but reaches a maximum of 7 m. It was deposited in an inner shelf marine environment. [5]
The Harwich Member is regarded as obsolete by the BGS, being replaced by the Wrabness Member. The Wrabness Member is subdivided into a lower Unit A and an upper Unit B. Unit A consists of tuffaceous clayey silts and silty clays, with many layers of tephra. The upper boundary with Unit B is an apparent disconformity. Unit B consists of fine-grained sand with layers of clay, affected by bioturbation. The Wrabness Member reaches a maximum thickness of 24 m. [6]
The Oldhaven Member is dominantly a fine-grained glauconitic sand with cross-bedding, lamination and evidence of bioturbation. [4]
The Blackheath Member is a distinctive unit that has been proposed to be raised to formation status. [2] [7]
The Hales Clay Member is regarded as obsolete by the BGS, being replaced with the Orwell Member. The Orwell Member is itself subdivided into three parts, known, from the base, as units A, B and C. Unit A consists of up to 1 m of fine-grained glauconitic sands with black gravel and some fossil fragments at the base. Unit B conformably overlies Unit A, consisting of up to 1.75 m of bioturbated silty sands and sandy clayey silts, locally with broken shells and dark clay laminae. Unit C, up to 2.5 m in thickness, consists of tuffaceous sandy silt with fine sand laminae. [8]
Gravels and sands of the Blackheath member were at one time extensively quarried across Blackheath. Of the numerous quarries, only two remain relatively untouched, with the remainder being infilled either with rubble from bomb-damaged areas in the Second World War or from the laying of sewers across Blackheath. On the northeast side of the Heath, Vanbrugh Pits exposes the typical black flint pebbles in the sides and on the base of the old quarry. [9] On the southwestern edge of the Heath, Eliot Pits were quarried down to the base of the Harwich Formation, the top of the underlying Lambeth Group. [10]
The Chalk Group is the lithostratigraphic unit which contains the Upper Cretaceous limestone succession in southern and eastern England. The same or similar rock sequences occur across the wider northwest European chalk 'province'. It is characterised by thick deposits of chalk, a soft porous white limestone, deposited in a marine environment.
Greensand or green sand is a sand or sandstone which has a greenish color. This term is specifically applied to shallow marine sediment that contains noticeable quantities of rounded greenish grains. These grains are called glauconies and consist of a mixture of mixed-layer clay minerals, such as smectite and glauconite. Greensand is also loosely applied to any glauconitic sediment.
The Lambeth Group is a stratigraphic group, a set of geological rock strata in the London and Hampshire Basins of southern England. It comprises a complex of vertically and laterally varying gravels, sands, silts and clays deposited between 56-55 million years before present during the Ypresian age. It is found throughout the London Basin with a thickness between 10m and 30m, and the Hampshire Basin with a thickness between 50m and less than 25m. Although this sequence only crops out in these basins, the fact that it underlies 25% of London at a depth of less than 30m means the formation is of engineering interest for tunnelling and foundations.
The Hannut Formation is a geologic formation in the subsurface of northern Belgium. The formation consists of marine clay and silt, alternating with more sandy layers. On top of this the lithology changes to limestone, siltstone and sandstone and the top of the formation is formed by a layer of glauconite bearing sand. The Hannut Formation was formed during the early to middle Thanetian age.
The Gentbrugge Formation is a geologic formation in the west of Belgium. The formation crops out in East Flanders and West Flanders and also occurs in the subsurface of the Province of Antwerp. It consists of marine clay, silt and sand, deposited in the shallow sea that covered northern Belgium during the Ypresian age.
The Lower Greensand Group is a geological unit present across large areas of Southern England. It was deposited during the Aptian and Albian stages of the Early Cretaceous. It predominantly consists of sandstone and unconsolidated sand that were deposited in shallow marine conditions.
Haffield Breccia, or Clent Breccia, consist of a texturally immature compacted gravel, rich in volcanic clasts with some sedimentary rocks, in a sandy or muddy matrix, which outcrops in the English Midlands, in South Staffordshire, Birmingham and the Malverns. It is thought to have been deposited by during flash floods in rivers that were flowing through a desert, somewhere between 200 and 280 million years ago during the Permian period. The gravel consists of angular fragments, showing that they have not been transported over long distances.
The geology of Suffolk in eastern England largely consists of a rolling chalk plain overlain in the east by Neogene clays, sands and gravels and isolated areas of Palaeocene sands. A variety of superficial deposits originating in the last couple of million years overlie this 'solid geology'.
The geology of Essex in southeast England largely consists of Cenozoic marine sediments from the Palaeogene and Neogene periods overlain by a suite of superficial deposits of Quaternary age.
The Ferruginous Sands is a geologic formation in England. It preserves fossils dating back to the Aptian Stage of the Cretaceous period. It consists of "a number of heavily bioturbated coarsening-upward units each comprising dark grey sandy muds or muddy sands passing up into fine-to medium-grained grey to green glauconitic sands." The dinosaur Vectaerovenator inopinatus is known from the formation. Shark teeth are also known from the formation, including those of an indeterminate lamniform shark and Palaeospinax.
The Thanet Formation is a geological formation found in the London Basin of southeastern England. It is of early to mid-Thanetian age and gave its name to that stratigraphic interval. It was previously known as the Thanet Beds, the Thanet Sands and the Thanet Sand Formation. It was named after the Isle of Thanet. The type sections are Herne Bay in Kent for the upper part of the formation and Pegwell Bay for the lower part. It lies unconformably on the Late Cretaceous Chalk Group. It unconformably underlies the Lambeth Group, generally the Upnor Formation but in Essex it is the Reading Formation.
The Corallian Group or Corallian Limestone is a geologic group in England. It is predominantly a coralliferous sedimentary rock, laid down in the Oxfordian stage of the Jurassic. It is a hard variety of "coral rag". Building stones from this geological structure tend to be irregular in shape. It is often found close to seams of Portland Limestone. It is a younger limestone than its near-neighbour, the Oolitic, as found in the Cotswolds, in Gloucestershire. It is laterally equivalent to and interfingers with units of the Ancholme Group.
The geology of West Sussex in southeast England comprises a succession of sedimentary rocks of Cretaceous age overlain in the south by sediments of Palaeogene age. The sequence of strata from both periods consists of a variety of sandstones, mudstones, siltstones and limestones. These sediments were deposited within the Hampshire and Weald basins. Erosion subsequent to large scale but gentle folding associated with the Alpine Orogeny has resulted in the present outcrop pattern across the county, dominated by the north facing chalk scarp of the South Downs. The bedrock is overlain by a suite of Quaternary deposits of varied origin. Parts of both the bedrock and these superficial deposits have been worked for a variety of minerals for use in construction, industry and agriculture.
The Bridport Sand Formation is a formation of Toarcian age found in the Worcester and Wessex Basins of central and southern England. It forms one of the reservoir units in the Wytch Farm oilfield in Dorset. The sandstone is very-fine grained to fine-grained and contains regular narrow bands that are calcite-cemented and more resistant to weathering, giving it a characteristic banded appearance at outcrop, such as in the cliffs between Bridport and Burton Bradstock in Dorset. It is named for Bridport and has previously been known as the Midford Sand(s), Cotteswold Sands, Yeovil Sands and Upper Lias Sand(s). It forms a locally important aquifer, particularly around Yeovil.
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