Purfleet Chalk Pits

Purfleet Chalk Pits
Site of Special Scientific Interest

Area of Search	Essex
Grid reference	TQ560784 TQ563785 TQ566785 TQ 569 786
Interest	Geological
Area	10.7 hectares
Notification	1986
Location map	Magic Map

Purfleet Chalk Pits is a 10.7 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Purfleet in Essex.^[1]^[2] It is a Geological Conservation Review site.^[3]

The chalk pits expose sands and gravels which are associated with the ancient course of the River Thames. They have yielded varied animal, mollusc and plants remains which throw light on the environmental and fluvial conditions at the time when they were deposited.^[1] The site is over 280,000 years old, and laid down when this section of the Thames was flowing westwards. There also broken flints in several layers, showing occupation by early humans at several different periods.^[4] MIS9, between about 335,000 and 280,000 years ago, is often informally called the Purfleet interglacial, and the mammalian assemblage on the site is the type for the Purfleet Mammalian assemblage zone.^[5]

The site consists of Greenlands Quarry, Bluelands Quarry, Botany Pit and Esso Pit. Most of it has been filled in and is covered by a housing estate. A section of Greenlands Quarry has been created for research, but this is closed to the public.^[4]

References

1 2 "Purfleet Chalk Pits citation" (PDF). Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
↑ "Map of Purfleet Chalk Pits". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
↑ "Purfleet: Bluelands, Greenlands, Esso and Botany Pits". Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
1 2 "Purfleet Chalk Pits SSSI, Thurrock District, TQ569786, Site of Special Scientific Interest". Essex Field Club. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
↑ Pettit, Paul; White, Mark (2012). The British Palaeolithic: Human Societies at the Edge of the Pleistocene World. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-415-67455-3.

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Coordinates: 51°28′59″N 0°15′00″E / 51.483°N 0.25°E / 51.483; 0.25

Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Essex

Biological	Abberton Reservoir Ashdon Meadows Basildon Meadows Belcher's and Broadfield Woods Benfleet and Southend Marshes Blackwater Estuary Blake's Wood & Lingwood Common Bovingdon Hall Woods Bullock Wood Canvey Wick Cattawade Marshes Chalkney Wood Colne Estuary The Coppice, Kelvedon Hatch Cornmill Stream and Old River Lea Crouch and Roach Estuaries Curtismill Green Danbury Common Debden Water Dengie Elsenham Woods Epping Forest Foulness Garnetts Wood and Barnston Lays Garrold's Meadow Glemsford Pits Grays Thurrock Chalk Pit Great Wood and Dodd's Grove Hainault Forest Hales and Shadwell Woods Hamford Water Hangman's Wood and Deneholes Hanningfield Reservoir Harlow Woods Hatfield Forest High Wood, Dunmow Hockley Woods Holehaven Creek Holland Haven Marshes Hunsdon Mead Inner Thames Marshes Little Hallingbury Marsh Mill Meadows Mucking Flats and Marshes Norsey Wood Nunn Wood Pitsea Marsh Quendon Wood Riddles Wood Roding Valley Meadows Roman River Sandbeach Meadows Stour and Copperas Woods, Ramsey Stour Estuary Thorndon Park Thrift Wood, Woodham Ferrers Thundersley Great Common Tiptree Heath Turnford and Cheshunt Pits Upper Colne Marshes Vange and Fobbing Marshes Waltham Abbey Weeleyhall Wood West Thurrock Lagoon and Marshes West Wood, Little Sampford Woodham Walter Common

Geological	Ardleigh Gravel Pit Clacton Cliffs and Foreshore The Cliff, Burnham-on-Crouch Colne Estuary Dengie Globe Pit Goldsands Road Pit Hall's Quarry Harwich Foreshore Holland-on-Sea Cliff Lion Pit Little Oakley Channel Deposit Lofts Farm Pit Maldon Cutting Marks Tey Brickpit The Naze Newney Green Pit Purfleet Chalk Pits Purfleet Road, Aveley River Ter St Osyth Pit Stour Estuary Wivenhoe Gravel Pit

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