The sand and gravel resources of the country between Dorchester and Wareham, Dorset : description of parts of 1:25,000 sheets SY 68, 69, 78, 79, 88, 89, 98 and 99

The assessment of the sand and gravel resources of the Dorchester and Wareham area of Dorset is based on the geological maps and borehole records of the Institute of Geological Sciences, records made available by the sand and gravel industry, field work and 114 boreholes drilled for the Industrial Minerals Assessment Unit. All known deposits in the area that might be potentially workable for sand and gravel have been investigated geologically and a simple statistical method has been used to estimate the volume. The reliability of the volume estimates is give at the symmetrical 95 per cent probability level. The area has been divided into 6 resource blocks containing between 8.5 and 15.6 km2 of sand and gravel. For each block the geology of the deposits is described and mean gradings are stated. Detailed borehole data are also given. The geology, the position of the boreholes and the outlines of the resource blocks are shown on the accompanying maps.