The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Striped Loams (Woolwich Formation)

Computer Code: SLOM Preferred Map Code: notEntered
Status Code: Full
Age range: Ypresian Age (GY) — Ypresian Age (GY)
Lithological Description: The Striped Loams comprise laminated and thinly-bedded fine-grained sands, silts, clayey sands and clays. The occurrence at Loam Pit Hill contains fossil seeds and leaves (Curry, 1958, p. 71) in the 'Lewisham Leaf Bed' (Cooper, 1976a) and (Pitcher, 1967, fig. 3). As seen in the Charlton Pit, this comprises alternations of fine-grained sand and clay, with lignite. The name derives from sparse leaf impressions. Estuarine and other marginal marine environments. Early Eocene (earliest Ypresian).
Definition of Lower Boundary: The base of the Striped Loams is a sharply-defined contact that marks a change in lithology from shelly clay, sandy clay and muddy limestone of the underlying Upper Shelly Clay to laminated and thinly-bedded fine-grained sands, silts, clayey sands and clays of the Striped Loams.
Definition of Upper Boundary: The top of the Striped Loams is a sharply-defined contact between laminated and thinly-bedded fine-grained sands, silts, clayey sands and clays of the Woolwich Formation with glauconite-bearing sands, silts or clays with a basal rounded flint gravel bed and a marine fauna, or sandy flint gravels of the Harwich Formation.
Thickness: Up to about 9 m.
Geographical Limits: South-east London.
Parent Unit: Woolwich Formation (WL)
Previous Name(s): Striped Sands [Obsolete Name and Code: Use SLOM] (-3130)
Alternative Name(s): none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Reference Section  Charlton Pit (or Gilbert's Pit), just south-west of Maryon Park, Charlton, London Borough of Greenwich (Daley, 1999b; Ellison et al., 1994; Hooker, 2010; Whitaker, 1889). 
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. 95pp. 
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. 
Curry, D. 1958. Part 3a XII Palaeogene. Lexique Stratigraphique International. Whittard, W F, and Simpson, S (editors). Vol. 1 Europe (Paris: Centre Nationale de la Research Scientifique.) 
Daley, B. 1999. London Basin: eastern localities, In: Daley, B, Balson, P (Eds.), British Tertiary Stratigraphy. Geological Conservation Review Series 15, pp. 23-72. 
Dewey, H, Bromehead, C E N, Chatwin, C P and Dines, H G. 1924. The geology of the country around Dartford. Memoir of the Geological Survey, Sheet 271 (England and Wales). 
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. 
Ellison, R A, Woods, M A, Allen, D J, Forster, A, Pharaoh, T C and King, C. 2004. Geology of London. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, Sheets 256 (North London), 257 (Romford), 270 (South London), 271 (Dartford) (England and Wales). 
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. 
King, C. in prep. A revised correlation of Palaeogene and Neogene deposits in the British Isles. Geological Society of London Special Report. 
Whitaker, W., 1889. The geology of London and part of the Thames Valley (Explanation of Sheets 1, 2 and 7). Memoir of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom Vol. 1. Descriptive geology. 
Pitcher, W S. 1967. Itinerary I Charlton and Valley Grove. 8-10 in The London Region. Pitcher, W S, Peake, N B, Carreck, J N, Kirkaldy, J F, Hester, S W, and Hancock, J M (editors). Geologists' Association Guides, No. 30. 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
none recorded or not applicable