The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Bembridge Limestone Formation

Computer Code: BEL Preferred Map Code: BeL
Status Code: Full
Age range: Priabonian Age (GI) — Rupelian Age (GR)
Lithological Description: Limestones and clayey limestones intercalated with lime-rich muds and clays. Includes impersistent peloidal limestones and calcretes.
Definition of Lower Boundary: The basal contact is gradational or sharp and erosive into principally silts and clays within the members of the underlying Headon Hill Formation.
Definition of Upper Boundary: Gradational or sharp contact with clays and silts of the Bembridge Marls Member (Bouldnor Formation). As originally defined (Insole and Daley, 1985) the formation included about 2m of lime-rich clays and clay above the highest limestone. These are now assigned to the overlying Bembridge Marls Member (Bouldnor Formation) by Daley and Edwards (1990).
Thickness: Up to 9m.
Geographical Limits: Throughout the northern part of the Isle of Wight.
Parent Unit: Solent Group (SOLT)
Previous Name(s): Bembridge Limestone [Obsolete Name and Code: Use BEL] (-2595)
Alternative Name(s): none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Type Section  Cliff section at Whitecliff Bay, Isle of Wight where 8.5m of pale brown to white fossiliferous limestones and lime-rich mudstones in three cycles are seen. Daley and Edwards (1990); Insole and Daley (1985). 
Reference(s):
Melville, R V and Freshney, E C. 1982. British Regional Geology: the Hampshire Basin and adjoining areas (4th Edition).(London ,HMSO for Institute of Geological Sciences). 
Insole, A and Daley, B. 1985. A revision of the lithostratigraphy of the Late Eocene and Early Oligocene strata of the Hampshire Basin, Southern England. Tertiary Research, Vol.7, 67-100. 
Armenteros, I, Daley, B, and García, E. 1997. Lacustrine and palustrine facies in the Bembridge Limestone (late Eocene, Hampshire Basin) of the Isle of Wight, southern England. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Vol. 128, 111-132. 
Daley, B. 1999. Palaeogene sections of the Isle of Wight. A revision of their description and significance in the light of research undertaken over recent decades. Tertiary Research, Vol.19, 1-69. 
Daley, B, and Edwards, N. 1990. The Bembridge Limestone (Late Eocene), Isle of Wight, southern England: a stratigraphical revision. Tertiary Research, Vol. 12, 51-64. 
Gale, A S, Huggett, J M, Pälike, H, Laurie, E, Hailwood, E A, and Hardenbol, J. 2006. Correlation of Eocene-Oligocene marine and continental records: orbital cyclicity, magnetostratigraphy and sequence stratigraphy of the Solent Group, Isle of Wight, UK. Journal of the Geological Society of London, Vol. 163, 401-415. 
Hooker, J J, Grimes, S T, Mattey, D P, Collinson, M E, and Sheldon, N. 2009. Refined correlation of the UK Late Eocene - Early Oligocene Solent Group and of its climate history. 179-196 in The Late Eocene Earth-Hothouse, Icehouse, and Impacts. Koeberl, C, and Montanari, A (editors). Special Paper 452. (Geological Society of America)  
White, H J O. 1921. A short account of the geology of the Isle of Wight. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, (1994 reprint). 
Curry, D, Adams, C G, Boulter, M C, Dilley, F C, Eames, F E, Funnell, B M, and Wells, M K. 1978. A Correlation of Tertiary rocks in the British Isles. Geological Society of London Special Publication, Vol. 12, 1-72. 
Insole, A, Daley, B, and Gale, A. 1998. The Isle of Wight. Geologists’ Association Guide. No. 60. (The Geologists’ Association.)  
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
E330 E331