Nigel Banks discusses how a rise in sea level during the Aptian (early Cretaceous) flooded parts of the London Platform depositing isolated pockets of sand-rich sediments across an eroded surface. These deposits make up the Lower Greensand Group which represents the base of a transgressive megasequence that culminates in the Chalk. The three sands in Oxfordshire, near Faringdon, Nuneham Courtney and Tiddington have been mapped in the subsurface. Each shows strikingly different thicknesses and geometries, only partially related to the amount of erosion of the underlying Upper Jurassic section. Despite this improved understanding, many mysteries remain!

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