Northiam is a Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

 in the county of East Sussex

East Sussex

East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...

, England. It is a disused quarry, partially flooded, revealing structures of geological interest.

The disused (and partially flooded) quarry at Northiam

Northiam

Northiam is a village and civil parish in the Rother District of East Sussex, England. The village is located thirteen miles north of Hastings in the valley of the River Rother. The main road that passes through it is the A28 which goes to Canterbury and Hastings.-Governance:The lowest level of...

 displays an excellent section
through the Northiam Sandstone Member of the Wadhurst Clay Formation,
for which this is the type locality

Type locality (geology)

Type locality , also called type area or type locale, is the where a particular rock type, stratigraphic unit, fossil or mineral species is first identified....

. The rocks
comprise complex channel-fill sandstones (including sedimentary bar-forms and
current direction indicators).


The site is important for the study of the Wadhurst Clay Formation
palaeoenvironments and palaeogeography

Palaeogeography

Palaeogeography is the study of what the geography was in times past. It is most often used about the physical landscape, although nothing excludes its use in reference to the human or cultural environment...

. It is particularly important for comparison
with other sandstone members of the Hastings Beds Group clay formations.