| Computer Code: |
CAMV |
Preferred Map Code: |
notEntered |
| Status Code: |
Full |
| Age range: |
Mid Pleistocene (QPM)
— Holocene Epoch (QH) |
| Lithological Description: |
The formation encompasses the fluvial, lacustrine and organic deposits of the River Cam and its tributaries. Four terraces are known. The terrace deposits comprise well bedded to rather poorly bedded sands and sandy gravels, deposited by a braided river in a periglacial environment. The pebbles are dominantly rounded chalk and rounded to angular flint, with a few glacial erratics. The three higher terraces are cryoturbated. Alluvial fan deposits comprise poorly sorted flinty chalky sand and gravel, with boulders of basalt and quartzite. The floodplain alluvium comprises silts, clays and fine sands, with bodies of peat, overlying sands and gravels. |
| Definition of Lower Boundary: |
Unconformable on Middle Pleistocene glacial deposits and on bedrock. |
| Definition of Upper Boundary: |
Land surface. |
| Thickness: |
To c.13m |
| Geographical Limits: |
Entire catchment of the River Cam and its tributaries, from near Saffron Waldon, Essex to near Ely, Cambridgeshire. |
| Parent Unit: |
Ouse-Nene Catchments Subgroup (ONCA)
|
| Previous Name(s): |
none recorded or not applicable
|
| Alternative Name(s): |
none recorded or not applicable
|
| Stratotypes: |
| Type Area |
The valley of the River Cam and its tributaries from Saffron Waldon to Little Thetford. Worssam and Taylor, 1998. |
| Reference(s): |
| Worssam, B C and Taylor, J H. 1969. The geology of the country around Cambridge. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Sheet 188 (England and Wales). |
| Moorlock, B S P, Boreham, S, Woods, M A, and Sumbler, M G. 2003. Geology of the Saffron Waldon district - a brief explanation of the geological map. Sheet explanation of the British Geological Survey. 1:50 000 Sheet 205 Saffron Waldon (England and Wales). |
| Moorlock, B S P, Boreham, S, Woods, M A, and Sumbler, M G. 2003. Geology of the Biggleswade district - a brief explanation of the geological map. Sheet explanation of the British Geological Survey. 1:50 000 Sheet 204 Biggleswade (England and Wales). |
| Lewis, S G. 1999. Eastern England. 10-27 in Bowen D Q (editor), A revised correlation of Quaternary deposits in the British Isles. Geological Society Special Report, 23. [London: Geological Society.] |
| 1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used: |
|
E188
E204
E205
|
