What is the geology of the Isle of Purbeck?
Geology. The geology of the Isle is complex. It has a discordant coastline along the east and concordant coastline along the south. The northern part is Eocene clay (Barton Beds), including significant deposits of Purbeck Ball Clay.
How old is Purbeck Beds?
approximately 145 million years ago
Purbeck Beds, unit of sedimentary rocks exposed in southern England that spans the boundary between the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, approximately 145 million years ago.
What type of rock is Purbeck?
limestone beds
Purbeck stone refers to building stone taken from a series of limestone beds found in the Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous Purbeck Group, found on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset in southern England. The best known variety of this stone is Purbeck Marble.
Was the Isle of Purbeck ever an island?
Purbeck is a district of Dorset that takes its name from the peninsula known locally as the ‘Isle of Purbeck’. This sixty square mile chunk of land jutting into the English Channel is bordered on three sides by water and, although not actually an island, has an insular character which is largely due to its geography.
How old is Purbeck marble?
Purbeck stone as we think of it today is a high quality limestone laid down in series of beds between 155 and 45 million years ago in what was then a landscape of shallow seas and brackish lagoons.
How was the Isle of Purbeck formed?
The basal part of the Purbeck Formation is Jurassic and the greater part Lower Cretaceous, Berriasian. It is the consequence of a major regression at the end of the Jurassic Period. The relatively deep marine Kimmeridge Clay facies shallowed, through the Portland Sand to the shoal oolites of the Portland Stone.
How was Purbeck stone formed?
The Purbeck Limestone Group was deposited over a period of some 6 million years (146-140my). Purbeck Marble is a brackish/freshwater Viviparus gastropod limestone, quarried since Roman Times between Peveril Point, Swanage and Worbarrow Bay from the Upper Purbeck Durlston Formation.
Who owns the Isle of Purbeck?
Working with the National Trust Club co-owners David Suruki and Kathy Tatar took over the Isle of Purbeck course six and a half years ago.