| Computer Code: |
LNSH |
Preferred Map Code: |
notEntered |
| Status Code: |
Full |
| Age range: |
Ypresian Age (GY)
— Ypresian Age (GY) |
| Lithological Description: |
The Lessness Shell Bed comprises fine- to medium-grained sand with shelly lenses and scattered very well-rounded flint gravel. It interfingers with non-shelly buff-coloured sand. It contains a varied fossil fauna including brackish to marine molluscs, fish teeth, birds and a significant, diverse assemblage of terrestrial mammals (Hooker, 1991, 2010; King, 1981, p.20). |
| Definition of Lower Boundary: |
The Lessness Shell Bed is underlain by bedded white sand, within the Blackheath Member (Hooker, 2010). |
| Definition of Upper Boundary: |
The Lessness Shell Bed is overlain by non-shelly buff-coloured sand or by gravels in the upper part of the Blackheath Member. |
| Thickness: |
The Lessness Shell Bed varies in thickness from 0 to 2 m over only a few metres lateral distance. |
| Geographical Limits: |
The Lessness Shell Bed occurs in south-east London. |
| Parent Unit: |
Blackheath Member (BLB)
|
| Previous Name(s): |
none recorded or not applicable
|
| Alternative Name(s): |
none recorded or not applicable
|
| Stratotypes: |
| Type Section |
Charlton Pit (or Gilbert's Pit), just south-west of Maryon Park, Charlton, London Borough of Greenwich (Daley, 1999; Hooker, 2010). |
| Reference Section |
Abbey Wood, London Borough of Bexley (Hooker, 2010). |
| Reference(s): |
| 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. |
| Hooker, J J. 2010. The mammal faunas of the early Eocene Blackheath Formation of Abbey Wood, London. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society, London, 164, 1-162. |
| Hooker, J J. 1991. The sequence of mammals in the Thanetian and Ypresian of the London and Belgian basins. Location of the Palaeocene-Eocene boundary. Newsletters in Stratigraphy, Vol. 25, 75-90. |
| Daley, B. 1999. London Basin: eastern localities, In: Daley, B, Balson, P (Eds.), British Tertiary Stratigraphy. Geological Conservation Review Series 15, pp. 23-72. |
| King, C. 1981. The stratigraphy of the London Clay and associated deposits. Tertiary Research Special Paper No.6. (Backhuys: Rotterdam). |
| 1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used: |
| none recorded or not applicable |
