Cretaceous. A correlation of cretaceous rocks in the British isles

Designated terrains cretaces by d'Omalius d'Halloy in 1822, the System takes its name from creta, the Latin for chalk. This is the most conspicuous rock-type in Europe, and Cretaceous chalks are also known from parts of North America and Western Australia. The system is here divided into two and the term 'Middle Cretaceous' is not employed since it has no internationally agreed limits and is little used outside the Middle East. The Lower Cretaceous was formerly separated by some American authors as a distinct system, the Comanchean (from the town of Comanche, Texas). The Upper Cretaceous corresponds roughly to the Chalk Formation of earlier authors, chalk (Saxon cealc, German kalk, meaning lime) having been used as a geological term in England since the Middle Ages and in print from the time of Martin Lister (1684). Its white chalk cliffs gave England its first recorded name of "Albion". <...>