Jurassic Coast cliffs, spanning the Mesozoic, documenting 185 million years of geological history. The site can be best viewed from the sea, when the dipping nature of the rock strata becomes apparent. In East Devon, the coastal cliffs consist of steep cliffs of red sandstone from the Triassic, and at Budleigh Salterton, the gravel cliffs contain red quartzite pebbles which accumulate on the beach below as Budleigh pebbles, locally protected.Further east at Ladram Bay, more sandstone cliffs give rise to spectacular red sandstone stacks. Around Lyme Regis and Charmouth the cliffs are of Jurassic clays and shale, and landslips are common. Chesil
Quaternary Quaternary Quaternary () is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.588 ± 0.005 million years ago to the present. The Quaternary Period is divided into two epochs: the Pleistocene (2.588 million years ago to 11.7 thousand years ago) and the Holocene (11.7 thousand years ago to today). The informal term "Late Quaternary" refers to the past 0.5–1.0 million years. The Quaternary Period is typically defined by the cyclic growth and decay of continental