Early Cretaceous environments

A one day meeting of the British Sedimentological Research Group (BSRG), convened by K. G. Taylor and A. H. Ruffell, was held at the Postgraduate Research Institute for Sedimentology, University of Reading on 23 June 1992. The meeting set out to consider what is known about palaeoenvironments of the NW European early Cretaceous and to present current areas of new research that may significantly expand our understanding of this topic. Over 50 people attended this multidisciplinary meeting, coming from the fields of sedimentology, geochemistry, palaeontology and tectonics. There were 13 speakers and five poster presentations. Financial assistance from the BSRG to speakers from overseas is gratefully acknowledged. The Institute is also thanked for the use of their facilities. After a brief welcome by the conveners, D. J. Batten (Aberystwyth University) gave a talk reviewing his work on the palynology of NW European Wealden sediments. In this he stressed how palynological data, integrated with other available evidence, can contribute significantly to interpretations of early Cretaceous environments and should be utilized more by sedimentologists. In particular, the total recoverable organic matter in a sample should be studied, not just the identification of miospores and dinoflagellate cysts. J. Eyers (Open University) described how detailed sedimentology, grain-size analysis and gamma-ray logging have been used to correlate the Lower Cretaceous of the Bedfordshire Province. Using isopachyte maps, she was able to show that basement structures, reactivated as a result of North Sea rifting, were a major control on sedimentation. She also tentatively compared a combined