Journal of the Geological Society, London, Vol. 163, 2006, pp. 401–415. Printed in Great Britain. Correlation of Eocene–Oligocene marine and continental records: orbital cyclicity, magnetostratigraphy and sequence stratigraphy of the Solent Group, Isle of Wight, UK A. S. GALE 1,2, J. M. HUGGETT 3, H. PA¨ LIKE 4, E. LAURIE 1, E. A. HAILWOOD 5 & J. HARDENBOL 6 1Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Greenwich, Medway Campus, Chatham Maritime ME4 4TB, UK 2Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK (e-mail:
[email protected]) 3Department of Mineralogy, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK 4Department of Geology and Geochemistry, Stockholm University, S-10691, Stockholm, Sweden 5Core Magnetics, The Green, Sedbergh LA10 5JS, UK 6GSC Inc., 826 Plainwood Drive, Houston, TX 77079, USA Abstract: The magnetostratigraphy, clay mineralogy, cyclostratigraphy and sequence stratigraphy of the estuarine and continental Solent Group (Isle of Wight, Hampshire Basin, UK), which is of Late Eocene–Early Oligocene age, were investigated. A new magnetostratigraphy for the Solent Group is correlated to the chronostratigraphic standard using limited biostratigraphical data, and it is concluded that the base of the Oligocene falls close to the base of the Bembridge Limestone Formation. A long time-series of clay mineral XRD data was generated, which shows striking variation in illitic clay abundance. Illite is interpreted to have formed in gley palaeosols through repeated wetting and drying in response to high seasonality. High illitic clay values are tuned to c. 400 ka eccentricity maxima to develop an age model. In addition to a very strong c.