BRACKLESHAM BEDS  , in

geology, a series of clays and marls, with sandy and lignitic beds, in the Middle Eocene of the Hampshire Basin, England . They are well developed in the Isle of Wight and on the mainland opposite; and receive their name from their occurrence at Bracklesham in Sussex . The thickness of the deposit is from loo to 400 ft . Fossil mollusca are abundant, and fossil fish are to be found, as well as the Palaeophis, a sea-snake . Nummulites and other foraminifera also occur . The Bracklesham Beds lie between the Barton Clay above and the Bournemouth Beds, Lower Bagshot, below . In the London Basin these beds are represented only by thin sandy clays in the Middle Bagshot group . In the Paris Basin the " Calcaire grossier " lies upon the same geological horizon . See F . Dixon, Geology of Sussex (new ed., 1878) ; F . E . Edwards and S .

V .

Wood, " Monograph of Eocene Mollusca," Palaeontographical Soc. vol. i . (1847–1877); " Geology of the Isle of Wight," Mem . Geol . Survey (2nd ed., 1889) ; C . Reid, " The Geology of the Country around Southampton," Mem . Geol . Survey (1902) .