Babbacombe CliffsDesignations: GCR, SSSI Easily visible from Oddicombe Beach, faulting has caused a section of red coloured breccias of the Permian age to drop down next to the pale limestones. Within another section of the cliff the pressures of the Variscan Ororgeny, mountain building era, are evident where the rocks are in fact turned upside down, the dark slates at the bottom of the cliff are actually younger than the limestones at the top! GCR block / key theme: Marine Devonian (No. 421) Associated SSSI: Babbacombe Cliffs SSSI GCR Statement of Interest: "This locality includes the type section of the BabbacombeShales, which have yielded a rich goniatite fauna of early Frasnian age. The cliff section is inverted and displays interesting structural features, and the best accessible section through the richly fossiliferous Barton Limestone. This section is of great interest in demonstrating the marked facies change from a high-energy, reef environment of the Barton Limestone to deeper water conditions represented by the Babbacombe Shales." |