Kimmeridge Clay

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.