(View of shell beds) - 1999

Today as the cliff is being eroded to the cliff end, bones are becoming increasingly hard to find, the beds are becoming thinner and the 'gap' where the stone layer and shell beds are not present, just after the first shell bed section is becoming wider every year. As the cliff height decreases the bones are becoming more fragile and now at the North end of the North cliff, bones are just powder due to the water seeping through the beds with a decrease in Easton Bavents Clay thickness.

(Full shell bed sequence) - 1999

It is believed that the North Cliff was an estuary and so you have these very thick layers of shells. Right at the top you have the stone layer containing bones, below this a more softer bed containing smaller mammal and fish remains known as the upper shell bed. Below this a thin layer of crag sands and then you come to the more stony shell bed known as the middle shell bed. Below this a very hard compressed sand layer with the odd shells seen before you come to the lower shell bed which contains more whiter and more whole shells. Bird bones can be found in the lower shell bed.

This was the original formation of the cliffs at Easton, however this formation is now only fully present at the beginning of the North cliff. After this you tend to loose the middle shell bed and at the North side of the North cliff, only the upper shell bed remains fading to just a stone layer.

Shell beds tend to be in 'pockets' and if the entire cliff was sectioned, these sections would change as the cliff face became eroded over years. Some places especially just after the above cliff section, the stone layer and shell beds have completely disappeared and just the crag sands remains.

Above the crag is the Easton Bavents Clay member which is unfossiliferous The above photo is taken of one of these areas where the shell pockets have finished. Bones can still however be found. It is clear where the shell beds should be and below these are the very sandy beds of the lower crag. Very rarely bones can be found in this very sandy base, a near complete adult Deer antler was found in this bed. It is not worth looking in these sands as fossils are uncommon and very rare.

(Hard sandstone platform at base) - 1995

A very hard platform is at the base of the cliff during scouring. This bed is unfossiliferous and continues all the way along the base even at the South cliff.

(Cliff section) - 1997

(Full cliff section at Easton, South end of North cliff) - 1995