The Bracklesham Beds (Eocene) of Bracklesham Bay and Selsey, Sussex

Curry, Dennis; King, Alice; King, Chris; Stinton, F.C.

doi:10.1016/s0016-7878(77)80010-2

Cited by 30 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Subsequent work is summarized in Curry (1965Curry ( , 1966. More recent studies include work on the sedimentology (Gilkes, 1968 ;Blondeau & Pomerol, 1968 ;Morton, 1982), stratigraphy (Curry, Hodson & West, 1968;Curry, 1976;Curry et al, 1977;Odin, Curry & Hunziker, 1978;King & Kemp, 1982) and palaeontology (Eaton, 1971(Eaton, , 1976Wright & Murray, 1972;Murray & Wright, 1974;Costa, Downie & Eaton, 1976;Hooker, 1977).…”

Section: Previous Workersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More recently, Stinton (1975) and Curry et al (1977) presented a revised stratigraphy for the Bracklesham 'Beds' (sensu Fisher, 1862) of Bracklesham Bay. They were referred to as a 'Group', comprising four 'Formations' (Stinton, 1975) or 'Divisions' (Curry et al, 1977), namely the Wittering, Earnley, Selsey and Huntingbridge divisions in ascending order.…”

Section: Problems Of Stratigraphic Correlationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Facies, environments and sedimentary cycles in the Middle Eocene, Bracklesham Formation of the Hampshire Basin: evidence for global sea‐level changes?

Plint

1983

Sedimentology

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The Bracklesham Formation is of Middle Eocene age and occurs throughout the Hampshire Basin of southern England. The basin is elongated east‐west and filled with Lower Tertiary sediments. Its southern margin is marked by either large, northward‐facing monoclines, or faults, both of which underwent differential movement, with uplift of the southern side throughout the Middle Eocene. The Bracklesham Formation, which is up to 240 m thick, shows pronounced lateral facies changes with dominantly marine sediments in the east passing to alluvial sediments in the west. Four principal sedimentary environments: marine, lagoonal, estuarine and alluvial are distinguished. Marine sediments comprise six facies including offshore silty clays and glauconitic silty sands, beach and aeolian dune sands, and flint conglomerates formed on pebble beaches. Offshore sediments predominate in the eastern part of the basin, as far west as Alum Bay, where they are replaced by nearshore sediments. Lagoonal sediments comprise four facies and formed in back‐barrier lagoons, coastal marshes and, on occasions, were deposited over much of the basin during periods of low salinity and restricted tidal motion. Five estuarine facies represent tidal channels, channel mouth‐bars and abandoned channels. These sediments suggest that much of the Bracklesham Formation was deposited under micro‐ to meso‐tidal conditions. Alluvial sediments dominate the formation to the west of Alum Bay. They comprise coarse to fine sands deposited on the point‐bars of meandering rivers, interbedded with thick sequences of laminated interchannel mudstones, deposited in marshes, swamps and lakes. Extensive layers of ball clay were periodically deposited in a lake occupying much of the alluvial basin. In alluvial areas, fault movement exposed Mesozoic rocks along the southern margin of the basin, the erosion of which generated fault‐scarp alluvial fan gravels. Locally, pisolitic limestone formed in pools fed by springs emerging at the faulted Chalk‐Tertiary contact. In marine areas, flint pebbles were eroded from coastal exposures of chalk and accumulated on pebble beaches and in estuaries. From other evidence it is suggested that older Tertiary sediments were also reworked. The Bracklesham Formation is strongly cyclic and was deposited during five marine transgressions, the effects of which can be recognized throughout the basin in both marine and alluvial areas. Each of the five transgressive cycles is a few tens of metres thick and contains little evidence of intervening major regression. The cycles are thought to represent small‐scale eustatic sea‐level rises (‘paracycles’) superimposed upon a major transgressive ‘cycle’ that began at the base of the Bracklesham Formation, following a major regression, and was terminated, at the top of the Barton Formation by another major regression. This major cycle can be recognized world‐wide and may reflect a period of rapid northward extension of the mid‐Atlantic ridge.

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Section: Previous Workersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Problems Of Stratigraphic Correlationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facies, environments and sedimentary cycles in the Middle Eocene, Bracklesham Formation of the Hampshire Basin: evidence for global sea‐level changes?

Plint

1983

Sedimentology

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“…3); in particular by the coarse cross-bedded fluvial sands of the Poole Formation in the western part of the basin, e.g. around Wareham, that span the latest Ypresian (or 'Cuisian') to mid-Lutetian stages (see Curry et al 1977). These sands pass laterally eastwards into silts and fine sands of estuarine and marine origin.…”

Section: Late Early-early Mid-eocenementioning

confidence: 99%

The history of the major rivers of southern Britain during the Tertiary

Gibbard

Lewin

2003

JGS

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The evolution of the drainage system of lowland Britain is discussed on the basis of available geological evidence, including that from terrestrial sites and that which has more recently become available from offshore exploration of the North Sea, the English and Bristol Channels, and the Irish Sea. Tertiary stratigraphy throws considerable light on landform and river development. Paleocene destruction of a chalk cover, which seems to have been incomplete in western Britain, was accompanied by basin sedimentation under a tropical climate. The major elements, the Thames, Solent, Hampshire (?proto-Avon) river, Irish Sea river and possibly an early Trent river, existed almost throughout the Cenozoic. The influence of Atlantic rifting and thermal doming in NW Britain appears to have been stronger and more temporally focused than the persistent flexuring that determined and maintained Tertiary drainage lines in the SE. Here also the folded Mesozoic terrains on the surface contrast with the more dominant block-faulted relief of the Palaeozoic 'oldlands'. The rivers of the SE can be shown to have extended or reduced their lengths in response to relative sea-level change and gentle warping. Drainage antecedence, the destruction of the Solent system and the breaching of the English Channel are also evident. By contrast, the major river systems of the west are now entirely submerged. Long-term stability of the drainage pattern reflects a persistent tectonic regime in the south, with a subdued low-relief landscape having a weathered regolith and dense vegetation cover. Meandering river channels and alluvial styles predominated, although channel forms varied according to sediment load, slope and discharge variability. Coarse gravel-dominated accumulations are rare and localized. Chemically stable lithologies dominate the clastic component throughout. It is apparent that the deeply incised river valleys seen today are related to high, predominantly coarse sediment yields, encouraged by substantial, rapid climate changes in the Pleistocene. This emphasizes the significance of mechanical compared with chemical weathering for the rate and nature of landscape dissection, and the modifications that have arisen as a result of glaciation, frost-climate weathering, rapidly changing climates and sea levels. The stratigraphical evidence here reviewed is at variance with older, largely geomorphologically based landform evolution models ('denudational chronology'), but gives considerable support to the recent proposals emphasizing the significance of Paleocene erosion, and enduring low-relief landscapes and drainage systems evolving alongside fold development during the Paleogene. Given the depobasin evidence now available, postulated fluvially active episodes can, and must, be linked to contemporaneous deposition. Some at least of the many controversies involving the identity of erosion surfaces, the dating of them using only residual deposits and weathering mantles, and the selection of particular Tertiary episodes as ones of landscape...

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“…This is specifically in opposition to the widely accepted recommendations of the ISSC (Hedberg, 1976), that fossils should only be used if their physical presence characterizes lithology (p. 94). Curry et al (1977) made one important amendment to Stinton's revised stratigraphic nomenclature. In an account of the lithostratigraphy of the Bracklesham Group at Bracklesham, Stinton's four formations were reclassified as 'divisions', each division being defined 'to include the deposits of a major sedimentary cycle'.…”

Section: Lithostratigraphical Nomenclature Of the English Palaeogene mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the subject of type locality, that for the formations within the Bracklesham Group is given in Curry et al (1977) as Whitecliff Bay (SZ640860). The type locality of the Barton Formation can, on the basis of the description in Stinton (1975), only be in the cliffs between Mudeford and Milford-on-Sea, Hampshire (SZ200930 to SZ278917), and is here so defined.…”

Section: Lithostratigraphical Nomenclature Of the English Palaeogene mentioning

confidence: 99%