| Computer Code: |
SE |
Preferred Map Code: |
notEntered |
| Status Code: |
Full |
| Age range: |
Pliocene Epoch (NP)
— Pliocene Epoch (NP) |
| Lithological Description: |
Fossiliferous clay and sandy clay on ferruginous and quartzose sands. The clays have yielded abundant marine mollusca and foraminifera. |
| Definition of Lower Boundary: |
Base of sands not seen but presumed to be Mylor Slate Formation (Late Devonian). Sections recorded by H Dewey (unpublished IGS records) in the north part of Vicarage Pit indicate shelly clay resting unconformably on bedrock. |
| Definition of Upper Boundary: |
Overlain by and in irregular contact with Head. |
| Thickness: |
Deposit greater than 4m comprising c.4m of highly fossiliferous shelly clay on pebbly fine sand. |
| Geographical Limits: |
Isolated outlier, 0.3 x 1.4km, 1km east of the village of St Erth, Cornwall. |
| Parent Unit: |
British Coastal Deposits Group (COAS)
|
| Previous Name(s): |
St Erth Beds [Obsolete Name and Code: Use SE]
(*824)
|
| Alternative Name(s): |
St Erth Beds [Obsolete: use SE]
|
| Stratotypes: |
| Type Section |
Vicarage Pit, St Erth, Cornwall. Type section based on north section of pit trenched in 1966 and reported by Mitchell et al. (1973). |
| Reference(s): |
| Mitchell, G F, Catt, J A, Weir, A H, McMillan, N F, Margerel,J P, and Whatley, R C. 1973. The Late Pliocene marine formation of St Erth, Cornwall. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London,Vol.226, Series B, 1-37. |
| Millett, F W. 1895. The foraminifera of the Pliocene beds of St Erth. Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, Vol.11, 655-661. |
| Millett, F W. 1897. The foraminifera of the Pliocene beds of St Erth in relation to those of other deposits. Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, Vol.12, 43-46. |
| Messenger, R W, Hart, M B, Pirrie, D, Allen, L, Taylor, G K and Dashwood, B. 2005. The St Erth Formation: Geometry of the deposit and micropalaeontology. Geoscience in south-west England, Vol.11, 93-98. |
| Reid, C. 1890. The Pliocene deposits of Britain. Memoir of the Geological Survey. |
| Jenkins, D G, Whittaker, J E and Carlton, R. 1986. On the age and correlation of the St Erth Beds, S W England based on planktonic foraminifera. Journal of Micropalaeontology, Vol.5, 93-105. |
| Roe, I, Hart, M B, Taylor, G K and Marks, A. 1999. The St Erth Formation: history of the clay workings, geological setting and stratigraphy. Proceedings of the Ussher Society, Vol.9 304-309. |
| Jenkins, D G. 1982. The age and palaeoecology of the St Erth Beds, southern England based on planktonic foraminifera. Geological Magazine, Vol.119, 201-205. |
| Mitchell, G F. 1966. The St Erth Beds - an alternative explanation. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, Vol.76, 345-366. |
| 1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used: |
|
E351
|
