Geological evolution of the Hampshire Basin (southern England) during a global climate transition from ‘hothouse’ to ‘coolhouse’ in the Palaeogene

Palaeogene sediments of the Hampshire Basin were a sensitive recorder of fluctuations in climate and eustatic sea level as Earth's climate transitioned from the global early Eocene ‘hothouse’ to the early Oligocene ‘coolhouse’, accompanied by the first permanent continent-scale glaciation of An...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geology Today
Main Author: Barnet, James Stewart Kinmond
Other Authors: University of St Andrews.School of Earth & Environmental Sciences
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2023
Subjects:
MCC
QE
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10023/27300
https://doi.org/10.1111/gto.12423
Description
Summary:Palaeogene sediments of the Hampshire Basin were a sensitive recorder of fluctuations in climate and eustatic sea level as Earth's climate transitioned from the global early Eocene ‘hothouse’ to the early Oligocene ‘coolhouse’, accompanied by the first permanent continent-scale glaciation of Antarctica at the Eocene/Oligocene boundary. A study of the Palaeogene sediments of the Hampshire Basin is not only interesting from a palaeoclimate perspective, but the marine middle Eocene formations are renowned for containing some of the most abundant and diverse Palaeogene fossil assemblages in the world. In this article, I take you on a tour of the geological evolution of the Hampshire Basin from the end of the Paleocene through to the Pleistocene. I highlight some of the best exposures where sediments can be studied at outcrop and representative fossil assemblages can be collected, along with the economic and archaeological significance of these Palaeogene sediments. Peer reviewed