A village on the Dorsetshire coast, where extensive beds of the Upper Oolite formation are developed. Hence,
Kimmeridge clay, a bed of clay in the Upper Oolite containing bituminous shales. Kimmeridge coal, shale of the Kimmeridge clay containing so much bitumen that it may be burnt as coal; Kimmeridge coal money, disks of shale found near Kimmeridge, popularly supposed to have been used as coins by the ancient inhabitants.
1832. De la Beche, Geol. Man. (ed. 2), 319. The Kimmeridge clay … has a considerable range, particularly over England and France.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), I. II. vi. 438. Objects on which the name of Kimmeridge coal-money was conferred.
1872. Imperial Gazetteer Eng. & Wales, I. 1104/2. Bracelets made of the Kimmeridge coal were found in an ancient burial place at Dorchester in 1839.
Hence Kimmeridgian a. Geol., the specific epithet of that subdivision of the Upper Oolite which is prominent at Kimmeridge.
1863. Dana, Man. Geol., 449. The British subdivisions are for the most part recognized in France … in the Oolite—1, Bajocian … 6, Kimmeridgian.
