The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Thames Group

Computer Code: THAM Preferred Map Code: TGp
Status Code: Full
Age range: Ypresian Age (GY) — Ypresian Age (GY)
Lithological Description: Mainly silty clays and clays, some sandy or gravelly, with some silts, sands, gravels and calcareous mudstones. The Thames Group was deposited in environments ranging from marine shoreface ranging out to outer marine shelf. Eocene (early and middle Ypresian).
Definition of Lower Boundary: The base of the Thames Group is the base of the Harwich Formation.
Definition of Upper Boundary: The top of the Thames Group is the top of the London Clay Formation.
Thickness: Up to about 150 m. Approx. 110-115 m in the Hampshire Basin.
Geographical Limits: The Thames Group occurs in the London Basin, East Anglia and the eastern Hampshire Basin.
Parent Unit: Not Applicable (-)
Previous Name(s): London Clay Group [Obsolete Name and Code: Use THAM] (-1227)
Alternative Name(s): none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Partial Type Section  Foreshore between Bognor Regis and Pagham Harbours. 
Reference Section  Seacliffs at Whitecliff Bay, Isle of Wight. 
Reference(s):
King, C. 1981. The stratigraphy of the London Clay and associated deposits. Tertiary Research Special Paper No.6. (Backhuys: Rotterdam). 
Waters, C N, Smith, K, Hopson, P M, Wilson, D, Bridge, D M, Carney, J N, Cooper, A H, Crofts, R G, Ellison, R A, Mathers, S J, Moorlock, B S P, Scrivener, R C, McMillan, A A, Ambrose, K, Barclay, W J, and Barron, A J M. 2007. Stratigraphical Chart of the United Kingdom: Southern Britain. British Geological Survey, 1 poster. 
Cooper, J, 1976. British Tertiary stratigraphical and rock terms, formal and informal, additional to Curry, 1958. Lexique Stratigraphique International. Tertiary Research Special Paper No.1, Tertiary Research Group. 
Aldiss, D T. 2014. The stratigraphical framework for the Palaeogene successions of the London Basin, UK. British Geological Survey Open Report OR/14/008. 95 pp. 
Ellison, R A, Knox R W O'B, Jolley, D W and King, C, 1994. A revision of the lithostratigraphical classification of the early Palaeogene strata of the London Basin and East Anglia. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, Vol.105, 187-197. 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
E132 E148 E176 E191