Geological Guide to Beer Head

Geological succession at Beer Head

At the top of the cliff, Beer head forms the most western outcrop of Upper Chalk in England. Most of the zones are nodular and Echnoids such as Micraster cortestudinarium, Holaster and Micraster are in these nodules with flints. The chalk is of Santonian age.

There is a thick section of middle chalk, 156ft, including the Terebratulina lata and Inoceramus labiatus zones. Near the base, the Beer Freestone which is 13ft thick in places yields Inoceramus and other shells.

The lowest part of the cliff comprises of the lower chalk being part of the Beer Limestone Formation of the Hooken Nodular Limestone Bed, Cenomanian age. This is a complex thin sequence of bedded coarse calcareous sandstone, bioclastic limestone, calcarenite and shell-detrital limestone, with a distinct nodularity and well-developed hardgrounds. Glauconitic and phosphatic.

Although not always exposed at the Eastern end, the Upper Greensand can also be seen on the foreshore during scouring or at the very base of the cliff.