The stratigraphy of the Cretaceous (Albian stage) Gault and Upper Greensand formations: Dorset to Buckinghamshire and the western Weald, UK

Abstract

The present account is a review of the successions in the Albian Gault and Upper Greensand formations, their lithology and their ammonite biostratigraphy, proved at outcrop between Dorset and Buckinghamshire, in the western Weald and that recorded in boreholes in the intervening area. It is concluded that the Wessex and Weald regions formed a single sedimentary basin during the Albian Stage. The lithostratigraphy and biostratigraphy are described area by area and are combined with recent accounts of the Albian sediments of the adjacent regions to describe lateral and stratigraphical variations in the depositional environments and sources of sediment. We conclude that although the steady overall rise in sea level in the Albian had an important effect on the local depositional environments and in the distribution of Albian sediments in England and adjacent areas, the influence of intermittent tectonic phases on the development of transgressive erosion surfaces was such that individual pulses in global eustatic sea-level rise cannot be correlated with confidence with most of the transgressions in the Albian.