Kimmeridge Clay

The Kimmeridge Clay Formation is a sedimentary deposit of fossiliferous marine clay which is of Jurassic age. It occurs in Europe.

Kimmeridge Clay is arguably the most economically important unit of rocks in the whole of Europe, being the major source rock for oil fields in the North Sea hydrocarbon province. It has distinctive physical properties, log responses, and palynological signature.

It is named after the village of Kimmeridge on the Dorset coast of England, where it is well exposed and forms part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. It exists across England, in a band stretching from Dorset in the south-west, north-east to East Anglia.

The Humber Bridge's foundations are in the Kimmeridge Clay deposits under the Humber estuary.

The fossil fauna of the Kimmeridge Clay includes a reptile fauna of turtles, crocodiles, sauropods, plesiosaurs, pliosaurs and ichthyosaurs, as well as a number of invertebrate species.

Vertebrate fauna

Archosaurs

Thalattosuchians

Ornithischians

Kimmeridge

Coordinates: 50°37′04″N 2°07′11″W / 50.6178°N 2.1198°W / 50.6178; -2.1198

Kimmeridge (pronunciation: /ˈkɪmərᵻdʒ/) is a small village and civil parish on the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula on the English Channel coast in Dorset, England. It is situated about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) south of Wareham and 7 miles (11 km) west of Swanage, in the Purbeck administrative district. In 2013 the estimated population of the civil parish was 90.

Kimmeridge is a coastal parish and its coastline forms part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site. The coast is also part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and the whole parish is part of the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Kimmeridge is the type locality for Kimmeridge clay, the geological formation that covers most of the parish. Within the clay are bands of bituminous shale, which in the history of the village have been the focus of several attempts to create an industrial centre. An oil well has operated on the shore of Kimmeridge Bay since 1959.