Hampshire Basin

marine basin, Europe

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June 29, 2026

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The Hampshire Basin is a geological structure in southern England, characterized as a broad, shallow trough or syncline within the bedrock. This geological basin is distinct from a river basin, though they can sometimes overlap. The Hampshire Basin contains strata from the Tertiary, Cretaceous, and Jurassic periods.1

Hampshire itself is a county in south-central England, bordered by Dorset, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Surrey, West Sussex, and the English Channel. The county features rolling chalk downland, Tertiary clays, sands, and gravels, with areas of heath and woodland. Evidence of prehistoric settlement, Roman occupation, and Saxon invasions can be found within Hampshire.2

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Tertiary Period
Sedimentary sequences
The marine Hampshire and London basins, the Paris Basin, the Anglo-Belgian Basin, and the North German Basin have become the standard for comparative studies of the Paleogene part of the Cenozoic, whereas the Mediterranean region (Italy) has become the standard for the Neogene. The Tertiary record of…
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The marine Hampshire and London basins, the Paris Basin, the Anglo-Belgian Basin, and the North German Basin have become the standard for comparative studies of the Paleogene part of the Cenozoic, whereas the Mediterranean region (Italy) has become the standard for the Neogene. The Tertiary record of…
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United Kingdom
The lowland zone
…now floor the London and Hampshire basins. The former, an asymmetrical synclinal (or structurally downwarped) lowland rimmed by chalk, is occupied mainly by gravel terraces and valley-side benches and has relatively little floodplain; the latter is similarly cradled by a girdle of chalk, but the southern rim, or monocline, has…
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…now floor the London and Hampshire basins. The former, an asymmetrical synclinal (or structurally downwarped) lowland rimmed by chalk, is occupied mainly by gravel terraces and valley-side benches and has relatively little floodplain; the latter is similarly cradled by a girdle of chalk, but the southern rim, or monocline, has…
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