Barrington Chalk Pit

Also within

Cambridgeshire County

Condition (Natural England)

Geology & landscape

Mining / Industrial: Quarry · Geological Period: Cretaceous · Rock Type: Chalk, Greensand

Description

Description This large quarry has long been noted as the last remaining exposure of the famous Cretaceous ‘Cambridge Greensand’. The Greensand is essentially a remanie comprising rolled phosphatic nodules and fossils in a glauconitic chalky matrix. The fauna at Barrington includes brachiopods and fish teeth, but elsewhere in the region the Cambridge Greensand was formerly known as a source of fossils, especially vertebrate remains. The Greensand rests on an eroded surface of Upper Gault Clay Upper Albian and although forming the basal part of the Upper Cretaceous Cenomanian succession, much of the fauna is likely to be derived from the Upper Albian. Nevertheless, epifauna or some of the phosphataic pebbles, including bivalves, would indicate some indigeneous faunal elements. Overlying the Cambridge Greensand is a thick sequence of Lower Chalk, including Chalk Marl and Tottenhoe Stone. The site has great stratigraphical inportance for studies of the Upper Cretaceous of eastern England as well as including the best surviving exposures of the geologically famous Cambridge Greensand.