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Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 1998; v. 133; p. 103-164;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.1998.133.01.06
© 1998 Geological Society of London

Stratigraphic Syntheses

The lithostratigraphy of the latest Triassic to earliest Cretaceous of the English Channel and its adjacent areas

Nigel R. Ainsworth1, William Braham2, F. John Gregory3, Ben Johnson4 & Christopher King5

1 39 De tany Court, St. Albans, Hertfordshire AL1 1TU, UK Nigel_R_Ainsworth{at}compuserve.com
2 , 11 Corner Hall, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire HP3 9HN, UK
3 , 32 Inkerman Road, St. Albans, Hertfordshire AL1 3BB, UK
4 StratLab Ltd, 299 Deeside Road, Cults, Aberdeen AB15 9PA, UK
5 , 41 Montem Road, Newmalden, Surrey KT3 3QU, UK

The stratigraphy of the latest Triassic through to the earliest Cretaceous of the Portland-Wight Basin and its adjacent areas may be subdivided using petrophysical (gamma-ray and interval transit time) criteria, in association with gross lithology to allow a total of 50 lithological units to be recognized. Three units occur within the latest Triassic, 46 in the Jurassic and one in the earliest Cretaceous. The lithostratigraphy can be integrated into a biostratigraphic template using published data and subsequent observations based on micropalaeontology (ostracods, foraminiferids) and palynology (dinocysts, miospores). Throughout the study area recognition of major lithostratigraphic and biostratigraphic events enables the chronostratigraphic framework of the basin to be determined, which has aided identification of regional stratigraphic breaks throughout much of the Portland Wight Basin, including haitii in proximity to the Pliensbachian-Toarcian and the Aalenian-Bajocian boundaries, and also within the Late Oxfordian. Although the majority of the lithostratigraphic events have been deduced to be isochronous, a number of lithological units exhibit significant diachroneity. These specifically include the Frome Clay and the Great Oolite, the Kellaways Sand Member and Clay Member, and the Sandsfoot Grit Formation and the Ampthill Clay Equivalent.





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C. O. Hunt
Palynostratigraphy of the classic Portland and Purbeck sequences of Dorset, southern England, and the correlation of Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary beds in the Tethyan and Boreal realms
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 2004; 230: 175 - 186.
[Abstract] [PDF]