Introduction to the bibliography of Sussex Local Geological Sites
The bibliography for the Sussex LGS sites will be split into several parts.
- Lower Cretaceous – Wealden
- Lower Cretaceous – Lower Greensand
- Lower Cretaceous – Gault and Upper Greensand
- Upper Cretaceous – Chalk
- Cenozoic - Palaeogene
- Quaternary
- Geomorphology
- Economic Geology
At present only Part 4 Upper Cretaceous – Chalk has been completed The range of publications included in this bibliography shows that LGS sites notified in the Sussex LGS database have great historical importance as well as being locations where new concepts in stratigraphy, palaeontology and the geological history of the rocks are observed and tested. One aspect not included in the information for each site is geodiversity. Geodiversity includes the diverse range of fossils found at each site as well as the range of rocks, the differences in their origins (geological history) and the landscape they represent. With regard to this last point how the biodiversity of a site relates to underlying geology and geodiversity could also be developed as part of the information provided for each LGS site.
The Geological Conservation Review (GCR) volumes commissioned by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) contain the information vital for planning considerations at the SSSI/LGS sites. Several GCR volumes are relevant to the Weald and South Downs LGS sites including British Tertiary Stratigraphy v.15, 1999 (e.g. for the coastal geology around the Selsey Peninsula), Mesozoic and Tertiary Palaeobotany of Great Britain v.22, 2001 (e.g. for Wealden and Tertiary plants etc.); British Upper Cretaceous Stratigraphy v.23, 2001 (e.g. for the Chalk of the South Downs). Other volumes include the Marine Lower Cretaceous of Britain and the non-marine Lower Cretaceous Wealden Strata of southern England. This latter volume on the Wealden has been published in the Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association (v.123, 2012), as JNCC can no longer publish the remaining volumes.