Geology of East Sussex

Geology of south-eastern England. The Ashdown Sands and Wadhurst Clay is in lime green (9a); the Low Weald, darker green (9). Chalk Downs, pale green (6)
Geological section from north to south

The geology of East Sussex is defined by the Weald–Artois anticline, a 60 kilometres (37 mi) wide and 100 kilometres (62 mi) long fold within which caused the arching up of the chalk into a broad dome within the middle Miocene,[1] which has subsequently been eroded to reveal a lower Cretaceous to Upper Jurassic stratigraphy. East Sussex is best known geologically for the identification of the first dinosaur by Gideon Mantell, near Cuckfield,[2] to the famous hoax of the Piltdown Man[3] near Uckfield.

The county’s chalk has provided a world-class stratigraphic marker giving a great deal of detail in Cretaceous Chalk palaeoecology and palaeontology while in the east of the county on the Kentish border the Dungeness Foreland is important for the study of geomorphology and Holocene sea level fluctuations.

  1. ^ Blundell, Derek J. (2002). "Cenozoic inversion and uplift of southern Britain". Geological Society, London, Special Publications. 196 (1): 85–101. Bibcode:2002GSLSP.196...85B. doi:10.1144/gsl.sp.2002.196.01.06. Archived from the original on 13 December 2007. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  2. ^ Mantell, Gideon (1825). "Notice on the Iguanodon, a Newly Discovered Fossil Reptile, from the Sandstone of Tilgate Forest, in Sussex". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 115: 179–186. Bibcode:1825RSPT..115..179M. doi:10.1098/rstl.1825.0010. JSTOR 107739.
  3. ^ "The Unmasking of Piltdown Man". BBC News. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 26 September 2010.