Ieper Group

In the original description of his newly introduced Ypresian stage Dumont (1850) did mention neither stratotype nor type locality. He simply referred to the "collines d'Ypres" or Ieper Hills, as the area where the unit is best developed. However, it remains unclear what is meant by this term. The town of Ieper is situated in western Belgium, at the southern end of a small, NW-SE oriented depression (15 to 20 metres (49 to 66 ft) above mean sea level), surrounded from north to south by a series of low hills (between 25 and 45 metres (82 and 148 ft)). Dumont probably envisaged the elevated zones a few km north and east of Ieper (St.-Jan, Zillebeke, etc.), where clay beds have been quarried for brick and tile making for quite a long time.[1]

A new stratotype for the Lutetian was proposed by Blondeau (1981) about 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of Paris. The neostratotype is located on the right bank of the river Oise at St. Leu d'Esserent and the large quarry at St. Vaast-les-Mello (Oise).[2]

Since 2003, the Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) defined by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) for the Ypresian is set in the Dababiya section close to Luxor, Egypt,[3] where the uppermost Tarawan Limestone, the Esna Formation and the lowermost Thebes Limestone define the Ypresian sequence.[4] Several other proposals for the lithostratigraphic redefinition of the top of the Ypresian exist;[5] among others the Punta Torcida Formation of the Austral or Magallanes Basin in Tierra del Fuego, the Azkorri Sandstone in the Gorrondatxe section of the North Pyrenean Foreland or Basque–Cantabrian Basin,[6][7] the Agost section close to Alicante in the Agost Basin in the Betic Cordillera,[8] and the Fortuna section north of Murcia in the Prebetic realm of the Betic Cordillera,[9][10] all in Spain. Other proposed type sections for the Ypresian-Lutetian boundary are located in France, Italy, Israel, Tunisia, Morocco, Cuba and Mexico.[5][11]

The Ieper Group was redefined by Steurbaut in 2006,[12] and is since 2017 subdivided into five formations by the National Commission for the Stratigraphy of Belgium, from youngest to oldest:[13]

The Kortrijk Formation predominantly consists of marine clay. It occurs in the west and north of Belgium, the Tielt Formation, consisting of fine sand, is found in the subsurface of western and central Belgium and the Gentbrugge Formation, which comprises an alternation of clay, silt and fine sand, crops out in East and West Flanders.

The Ieper Group lies stratigraphically on top of the Landen Group (upper Paleocene) and below the Zenne Group (like the Ieper Group early Eocene in age). Unlike the Zenne Group, the Ieper Group can also occur in more southern parts of Belgium, for example in the Mons Basin.

• Steurbaut, Etienne; Marleen De Ceukelaire; Tim Lanckacker; Johan Matthijs; Peter Stassen; Hervé Van Baelen, and Noël Vandenberghe. 2017. An update of the lithostratigraphy of the Ieper Group, 1–79. National Commission for the Stratigraphy of Belgium. Accessed 2020-09-07.
• Steurbaut, Etienne. 2006. Ypresian. Geologica Belgica 9. 73–93. Accessed 2020-09-07.
• Smith, T., and R. Smith. 2003. Terrestrial mammals as biostratigraphic indicators in upper Paleocene-lower Eocene marine deposits of the southern North Sea Basin. Geological Society of America Special Paper 369. 513–520. .
• Laga, P.; S. Louwye, and S. Geets. 2001. Paleogene and Neogene lithostratigraphic units (Belgium). Geologica Belgica 4. 135–152. Accessed 2020-09-07.
• Willems, W. 1974. An aberrant Uvigerina from the Lower Eocene of Belgium. Micropaleontology 20. 478–479. .

Other Ypresian

• Guerrera, F.; M.A. Mancheño; M. Martín Martín; G. Raffaelli; T. Rodríguez Estrella, and F. Serrano. 2014. Paleogene evolution of the External Betic Zone and geodynamic implications. Geologica Acta 12. 171–192. Accessed 2020-09-07.
• Molina, Eustoquio; Concepción Gonzalvo; Miguel A. Mancheño; Silvia Ortiz; Birger Schmitz; Ellen Thomas, and Katharina von Salis. 2006. Integrated stratigraphy and chronostratigraphy across the Ypresian-Lutetian transition in the Fortuna Section (Betic Cordillera, Spain). Newsletters on Stratigraphy 42. 1–19. Accessed 2020-09-07.
• Larrasoaña, J.C.; C. Gonzalvo; E. Molina; S. Monechi; S. Ortiz; F. Tori, and J. Tosquella. 2008. Integrated magnetobiochronology of the Early/Middle Eocene transition at Agost (Spain): Implications for defining the Ypresian/Lutetian boundary stratotype. Lethaia 41. 395–415. Accessed 2020-09-07.
• Dupuis, Christian; Marie-Pierre Aubry; Etienne Steurbaut; William A. Berggren; Khaled Ouda; Roberto Magioncalda; Benjamin S. Cramer; Dennis V. Kent, and Robert P. Speijer and Claus Heilmann-Clausen. 2003. The Dababiya Quarry Section: Lithostratigraphy, clay mineralogy, geochemistry and paleontology. Micropalaeontology 49. 41–59. Accessed 2020-09-07.