 Whitecliff Bay has nearly identical geology to the lesser known Alum Bay, being a coastal section of the same strata which run east-west across the island.It displays a classic sequence of fossil-bearing Eocene beds of soft sands and clays, separated by an unconformity from the underlying Cretaceous Chalk Formation forming the headland of Culver Down to its south.Due to geological folding of the Alpine orogeny, the strata in the main section of the Bay are vertical, with younger rocks to the north.