Mapping at Lulworth Cove

I've just had two tiring days in Dorset doing a mapping exercise with university, for which I will say very little. Instead I will share the few pictures I managed to take today. After seeing the beautiful views yesterday I decided it would be worthwhile to take along a camera, only to find that my batteries ran out very soon into the trip. Others took pictures, so hopefully I will be able to get some off of them.

Above is part of stair hole where the Purbeck beds can clearly be seen on the left, showing a large amount of folding. Within the Cretaceous Purbeck beds were rocks known as the Cinder beds which are often used to mark the boundary between the Jurassic and Cretaceous, though in actuality the boundary is a little lower.

Above, though you may need to zoom, can be seen Lulworth Cove as seen from Stair Hole. Not much of the bedding can be seen from this view, though over on the right the bedding of the Purbeck beds is again quite obvious.

This is the view looking over to Durdle Door, which also continues the Purbeck beds and rocks of the Portland group (Jurassic). In the foreground are a mixture of first year geology students with palaeobiology students. The weather wasn't brilliant at the start of the day, with some slight rain, though in all it was pleasant. From here the extent of the chalk can almost be seen over on the right.

I really like this picture, showing a friend of mine caught eating, not looking very flattering. If I remember correctly these rocks are part of the Wealden group and the interesting looking yellow stuff is jaresite which has leached out of the rocks. Rain will easily wash this away from time to time.

This is my tutor sitting halfway up the Portland group beds. He is gesturing towards a very large ammonite in situ. This particular ammonite is Titanites  and is used as an index fossil for the Tithonian during the Jurassic. Specimens of Titanites can be rather large and very impressive. See below for a picture of another in situ.