The non-marine carbonates of the Purbeck limestones were deposited in a shallow lake on the western margin of the Wessex Basin during its late syn-rift phase of basin evolution. This lake was firstly brackish water, later hypersaline and finally freshwater. The lower, brackish phase, of the Purbeck limestones is characterised by in-situ, thrombolitic microbial mounds that are highly porous and reveal complex and irregular shapes. These microbial mounds are surrounded by an inter-mound packstone-grainstone facies and together are arranged in high-frequency lacustrine cycles capped by paleosols. This new work on the Dorset Purbecks represents the results of a 3-year industry funded research project at Royal Holloway University of London.

Find out more about these complex carbonate facies and compare them with the facies, tectonic setting and palaeoenvironments with the pre-salt carbonates from offshore Brazil and west Africa on the Purbeck Field trip 16 – 18 September 2016

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