On the Nature, Origin, and Climatic Significance of the Coral Reefs in the Vicinity of Oxford

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Abstract
I. Introduction The origin of the Coral Rag is a problem that has appealed to the imagination of many writers. Some (Wright, Duncan, Hull, Blake and Hudleston) have held it to consist of true fossilized coral reefs, and some have drawn glowing pictures of its formation under a tropical sun; but these have usually evaded the climatic and palæogeographical implications of their enthusiasm. Others (Phillips, H. B. Woodward) have been too cautious to admit that it represents anything but beds of “drifted” or “rolled” corals. But since the corals are obviously reef-builders and are present in large quantities, and no one has suggested that they have been rolled all the way from the tropics, it is difficult to see what advantage the cautious school have over the relatively reckless. The literature of modern coral reefs has now grown so vast that it is altogether disproportionate to that of fossil formations of comparable origin. Yet the fossil reefs are so important for the light they throw on past climates, ecology, tectonics, and paleongeography, as well as on the evolution and biology of corals, that the time is overdue for an attempt to describe some of them more accurately and to discuss their significance. Probably no better opportunity than the present has ever occurred for a re-examination of these questions. Around Oxford and the neighbouring town of Abingdon, villas are springing up along every road, and each affords holes for foundations, wells, and cesspools. The water-supply schemes have involved borings and excavations