The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Sutterby Marl Formation

Computer Code: SBM Preferred Map Code: SbM
Status Code: Full
Age range: Aptian Age (KP) — Aptian Age (KP)
Lithological Description: The formation, which is poorly exposed, comprises thin, pale grey calcareous mudstone. It is usually strongly bioturbated and contains a rich and diverse macrofauna, including ammonites, belemnites, bivalves, brachiopods, rare echinoids and corals, together with coccoliths, foraminifera and ostracods.
Definition of Lower Boundary: The base is taken at the erosion surface immediately below a phosphatic nodule horizon. In the type section the base is marked by an upward change from sandstones (Roach Formation) up into pale grey, fossiliferous, calcareous clay. In southern Lincolnshire and beneath The Wash, there is an upward change from grey to dark grey, sparsely fossiliferous, clay with iridescent ammonite fragments (Skegness Clay Formation) into pale grey, fossiliferous, calcareous mudstone.
Definition of Upper Boundary: The upper boundary is placed at an erosion surface where there is a upward change from calcareous mudstones of the formation into sandstones of the Carstone Formation.
Thickness: Up to c.3.14m in boreholes, but 1 to 2m at outcrop in the type area.
Geographical Limits: Southern Lincolnshire and The Wash. The Sutterby Formation extends as far north as the Oxcombe-Scamblesby area. Southwards, the formation disappears below The Wash, approximately 2km north of the Norfolk coast.
Parent Unit: Not Applicable (-)
Previous Name(s): Sutterby Marl [Obsolete Name and Code: Use SBM] (-1802)
Alternative Name(s): none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Reference Section  BGS Wash Borehole TF64SW1 between the depths 22.20 and 23.34m. Wingfield et al., 1978 
Reference Section  Alford Borehole TF47NW13, "In the grounds of the pumping station" (Swinnerton, 1935) Swinnerton, 1935 
Type Section  "A little valley immediately east of the hamlet of Sutterby" (Swinnerton, 1935). The grid reference is after Kaye and Barker (1965) who later revisited the site (although they appear to have transposed the northings and eastings. Swinnerton, 1935 
Reference(s):
Wingfield, R T R, Evans, C D R, Deegan, S E and Floyd, R. 1978. Geological and geophysical survey of The Wash. Report of the Institute of Geological Sciences, 78/18, 32pp. 
Casey, R, 1961. The stratigraphical palaeontology of the Lower Greensand. Palaeontology, Vol.3, 487-621. 
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. 
Swinnerton, H H. 1935. The rocks below the Red Chalk of Lincolnshire and their cephlopod fauna. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London, 91, 1-46. 
Kaye, P. and Barker, D. 1965. Ostracoda from the Sutterby Marl (U. Aptian) of south Lincolnshire. Palaeontology, 8, 375-390. 
Gossling, F. 1929. The Geology of the country around Reigate. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 40, 197-259. 
Gallois, R W, 1994. The geology of the country around King's Lynn and The Wash. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, Sheet 145 and part of 129 (England and Wales). 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
E103 E115 E129 E145