Formation · Paleogene

London Clay Formation

Eocene unit, Kent · Essex · West Sussex · Hampshire

The London Clay is the early Eocene marine clay of the Thames estuary and Sussex coast: Sheppey yields pyritised twigs, Nipa palm fruits, crabs (Zanthopsis), turtles, bird and fish bones, and Walton-on-the-Naze produces abundant shark teeth (Striatolamia, Otodus obliquus) and the shell Turritella. It is the best British locality for Eocene sharks and a reliable, legal beach-collecting site. Everything pyritised from the London Clay decays in humid rooms; consolidate and store with silica gel.

Country	United Kingdom
Region	Kent, Essex, West Sussex, Hampshire
Age	Ypresian, Eocene
Age range	~56–48 Ma
Group	Thames Group
Macrostrat rank	Fm· Macrostrat
Macrostrat age	56–48.1 Ma· Macrostrat
PBDB collections	140 collections, 2027 occurrences· Paleobiology Database

Collecting and legality

Sheppey, Walton and Bognor are public foreshores; collect between tides from the beach, not the cliffs, and respect the SSSI notices. Finds are the collector's to keep and sell. Nipa fruits and crabs in phosphatic nodules are pyritic and need dry storage.

Lithology and setting

Stiff blue-grey marine clay with septarian and phosphatic nodules, deposited in a warm sub-tropical sea at the Eocene climatic optimum.

Commonly recorded taxa (PBDB)

Genera most often recorded from this unit in the Paleobiology Database (first 200 occurrences): Eopleurotoma (8), Aporrhais (5), Haustator (5), Ditrupa (4), Euspira (4), Gemmula (4), Pitar (Calpitaria) (4), Antalis (3), Arctica (3), Bonellitia (3), Eotibia (3), Nemocardium (3), Nucula (3), Amygdalum (2), Animalia (2).

Source: Paleobiology Database

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "London Clay Formation" (Formation). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/formations/london-clay-formation. Accessed 2026-09-20.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-london-clay-formation,
  title        = {London Clay Formation},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/formations/london-clay-formation}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Formation article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, macrostrat, pbdb, commons. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.

Collecting and legality

Lithology and setting

Commonly recorded taxa (PBDB)

Age

Typical taxa

Referenced by

Elsewhere