Bracklesham Beds, in geology

Geology

Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

, are a series of clay

Clay

Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...

s and marl

Marl

Marl or marlstone is a calcium carbonate or lime-rich mud or mudstone which contains variable amounts of clays and aragonite. Marl was originally an old term loosely applied to a variety of materials, most of which occur as loose, earthy deposits consisting chiefly of an intimate mixture of clay...

s, with sandy and lignitic

Lignite

Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, or Rosebud coal by Northern Pacific Railroad,is a soft brown fuel with characteristics that put it somewhere between coal and peat...

 beds, in the Middle Eocene

Eocene

The Eocene Epoch, lasting from about 56 to 34 million years ago , is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Palaeocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the...

 of the Hampshire Basin

Hampshire Basin

The Hampshire Basin is a geological basin of Paleogene age in southern England, underlying parts of Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Dorset, and Sussex...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

They are well developed in the Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...

 and on the mainland opposite; and receive their name from their occurrence at Bracklesham in Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

. The thickness of the deposit is from 100 to 400 feet. Fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

 mollusca

Mollusca

The Mollusca , common name molluscs or mollusksSpelled mollusks in the USA, see reasons given in Rosenberg's ; for the spelling mollusc see the reasons given by , is a large phylum of invertebrate animals. There are around 85,000 recognized extant species of molluscs. Mollusca is the largest...

 are abundant, and fossil fish are to be found, as well as the Palaeophis

Palaeophis

Palaeophis is an extinct genus of snake. The sea-dwelling creature was initially thought to have been the largest snake ever, reaching the almost mythical length of 30–40 m , but recent estimates put its length at about 9 m , about as long as the modern green anaconda and reticulated python....

, a sea-snake. Nummulite

Nummulite

thumb|left|250px|Fossil Nummulites in [[Urbasa]], [[Basque Country |Basque Country]]A nummulite is a large lenticular fossil, characterized by its numerous coils, subdivided by septa into chambers. They are the shells of the fossil and present-day marine protozoan Nummulites, a type of foraminiferan...

s and other foraminifera

Foraminifera

The Foraminifera , or forams for short, are a large group of amoeboid protists which are among the commonest plankton species. They have reticulating pseudopods, fine strands of cytoplasm that branch and merge to form a dynamic net...

 also occur.

The Bracklesham Beds lie between the Barton Clay

Barton Beds

Barton Beds is the name given to a series of grey and brown clays, with layers of sand, of Upper Eocene age , which are found in the Hampshire Basin of southern England. They are particularly well exposed in the cliffs at Barton-on-Sea, which is the world type locality for the Barton Beds, and...

 above and the Bournemouth Beds, Lower Bagshot

Bagshot Beds

In geology, the Bagshot Beds are a series of sands and clays of shallow-water origin, some being fresh-water, some marine. They belong to the upper Eocene formation of the London and Hampshire basins, in England and derive their name from Bagshot Heath in Surrey. They are also well developed in...

, below. In the London Basin

London Basin

The London Basin is an elongated, roughly triangular sedimentary basin approximately long which underlies London and a large area of south east England, south eastern East Anglia and the adjacent North Sea...

 these beds are represented only by thin sandy clays in the Middle Bagshot group. In the Paris Basin

Paris Basin (geology)

The Paris Basin is one of the major geological regions of France having developed since the Triassic on a basement formed by the Variscan orogeny.-Extent:...

the "Calcaire grossier" lies upon the same geological horizon.