Involutions in the Middle Pleistocene (Anglian) Barham Soil, eastern England: a comparison with thermokarst involutions from arctic Canada |
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| Authors: | JULIAN B. MURTON COLIN A. WHITEMAN PETER ALLEN |
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| Affiliation: | Department of Earth Sciences, University of Wales, Cardif, PO Box 914, Cardrf CF1 3YE, UK;Earth and Environmental Sciences Research Unit, University of Brighton, Mithras House, Lewes Road, Brighton BN2 4AT, UK;Department of Geography, London Guildhall University, Calcutta House, Old Castle Street, London E1 7NT, UK |
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| Abstract: | Involutions in the early Anglian Barham Soil at Newney Green, Essex, and Badwell Ash, Suffolk, in eastern England, are attributed to soft-sediment deformation during an episode of regional thermokarst development. The involutions show a striking resemblance in morphology and size to thermokarst involutions within a palaeo-thaw layer at Crumbling Point, western arctic Canada. By analogy with the thermokarst involutions, the involutions in the Barham Soil are reinterpreted to have formed by loading during the melting of an ice-rich layer at the top of Anglian permafrost. This period of thermokarst development may have coincided with an episode of intra-Anglian climatic amelioration. Reinterpretation of the Barham Soil involutions implies that many other Pleistocene involutions in Britain may have formed during periods of thermokarst development rather than by active-layer cryoturbation. |
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