(Durlston Bay) - 2002

The top beds at Durlston are from the Purbeck, large boulders can be seen all over the foreshore. These are the Marble Beds and these dig at Peveril Point. At this point, the Broken Shell Limestone can often be seen on the foreshore. This is a hard, massive limestone with fragments of fish and turtles along with Neomiodon, Viviparus and Unio. This bed forms part of the Cypridea setina bed and continues at the Hotel Grosvenor.

Below the Broken Shell Bed, the Middle Purbeck Chief Beds, there is approximately 8 meters of this bed, limestone's separated by shale. The first meter of this bed is full of gastropods of Promathildia, Hydrobia and Procerithium. The Scallop beds follow this.

(The Marble beds of the Purbeck beds) - 2002

Below the Chief and Scallop beds follows the Intermarine Beds, these are over 15m thick and include many limestone's and thinner alternating shale. The Shale yields fish and turtle remains. Below this, the Cinder bed forms the base of the Durlston Formation, full of oyster shells and bivalves.

Below this, the Cherty Freshwater beds from the Lulworth formation yields many gastropods and beneath this the Marly Freshwater beds mark the location for the Mammal Bed. This freshwater bed which is 4m thick is full of gastropods of Valvata and Hydrobia, the mammal bed is in the middle of this section where turtle crocodile and fish remains can be found. Insects have also been recorded.

The Soft Cockle Bed follows, there is some 22m of this bed with a large amount of Gypsum. The Hard cockle Bed follows, 4m of this, cockles here and tightly compacted.

Cretaceous	Late	Maastrichtian			65.0 to 71.0
		Campanian			71.0 to 83.0
		Santonian			83.0 to 86.0
		Contacian			86.0 to 89.0
		Turonian			89.0 to 93.0
		Cenomanian			93.0 to 98.9
	Early	Albian			98.9 to 111
		Aptian			111 to 121
		Barremian			121 to 127
		Hauterivian			127 to 132
		Valanginian			132 to 137
		Ryazanian		Berriasian	137 to 142
Jurassic	Late	Volgian	Portlandian		142 to 147
			Tithonian
					147 to 150
		Kimmeridgian		Late	150 to 154
				Early
		Oxfordian	Corallian		154 to 159.4
			Late Oxford Clay
	Middle	Callovian	Middle Oxford Clay		159 to 165
			Early Oxford Clay
			Kellaways
			Late Cornbrash
		Bathonian	Early Cornbrash		165 to 170
			Forest Marble
			Frome Formation
			Wattonensis Beds
			Fullers Earth
			Zigzag Beds
		Bajocian	Late Inferior Oolite		170 to 177
			Middle Inferior Oolite
		Aalenian	Early Inferior Oolite		177 to 180.1
			Scissum Beds
			Bridport Sands
	Early	Toarcian (Late Lias)			180 to 190
		Pliensbachian (Middle and Early Lias)			190 to 195
		Sinemurian (Early Lias)			195 to 201
		Hettangian (Early Lias)			201 to 205.7

Berriasian 136 - 141 MYA
FORMATIONS AND DEPOSITS			LOCATIONS
Purbeck	Durlston Formation	Unio Beds	Durlston Bay Poxwell Quarry
		Broken Shell lst
		Chief Beef Beds
		Corbula Beds
		Scallop Beds
		Intermarine Beds
		Cinder Beds

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1: 50 000 Geological Map of Swanage Geological Maps are sold either Flat or Folded for Solid, Drift or combined geology. Special editions may be available for certain locations. For a complete list of 1: 50 000 maps, click the link below. Click here to BUY ONLINE from our Store