Major river systems of central and southern Britain during the Early and Middle Pleistocene

Central and southern Britain was drained by two main river systems during the larger part of the Early and Middle Pleistocene: the Thames and Bytham rivers. Evidence for these rivers and their Quaternary history is represented by their sediments (the Kesgrave and Bytham Sands and Gravels, respectively), the geomorphological position of the sediments, biostratigraphy and amino acid geochronology. Evidence from the earlier parts of the Early Pleistocene (Tiglian C4b and earlier) indicates low-energy river systems and marine conditions over much of East Anglia. For most of the Early Pleistocene (Tiglian C4c to the Cromerian Complex) the ancestral Thames was the main river with, at its maximal extent, a catchment that extended into Wales, and across East Anglia and what is now the North Sea, to join the ancestral Rhine. During this period, glaciers in the uplands of Wales and periglacial mass movement elsewhere supplied material to the catchment and it was at this time that the bulk of the sorted Quaternary ssediments of lowland Britain were deposited. The Bytham river system has no successor because the landscape now in existence has been fundamentally altered by glacial erosion. This catchment drained most of Midland England and joined the Thames in central East Anglia. Initially, the Bytham river was a tributary of the Thames, but over time it extended its catchment and at the beginning of the 'Cromerian Complex'it became the main river of southern Britain. With the Anglian Glaciation (01 Stage 121, the Bytham river was destroyed and the Thames was diverted to its present route through London.     

Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of a glaciotectonized Early and Middle Pleistocene land surface, palaeosol and river sediments: Great Sampford, Suffolk, England

Glaciotectonized sediments and palaeosol at Great Sampford, western Suffolk, England are reconstructed to their original positions in order to determine the form of the original land surface and the associated soil development. The restored stratigraphy consists of Early Pleistocene Kesgrave Sands and Gravels which were deposited by the 'pre-glacial' river Thames, with the Early-Middle Pleistocene Valley Farm Soil developed on a terrace surface. These units are overlain by Sampford Deformation Till and Lowestoft Till, which were formed during the Middle Pleistocene Anglian glaciation. The micromorphological features of the reconstructed soil are interpreted in terms of three climatic cycles, each comprising a period of temperate climate soil formation followed by cold climate soil disruption. The final stage of disruption is associated with the periglacial climate that preceded Anglian glacierization. This pedological reconstruction is the most complex yet recognized from British Early and Middle Pleistocene palaeosols and provides an insight into major climatic oscillations prior to the Anglian Glaciation. The surface upon which the soil developed is one of the oldest terraces of the 'pre-glacial' River Thames that were formed when this river flowed northwards through East Anglia.     

The Middle Pleistocene terraces of the central Waveney valley,Earsham, south Norfolk,UK

Although substantial work has been done on the pre-glacial terraces of East Anglia, very little systematic work has been done to understand the origin of river terraces in East Anglia that have formed since ice last covered the region. This paper records the results of studies of exposures and borehole records in ‘classical’ Quaternary terrace landforms that are considered to have formed since the Anglian (MIS 12) Glaciation, in the middle Waveney Valley. These features have been examined in terms of their morphological and sedimentological properties, in order to provide a detailed record of their form and composition, understand their processes of formation, and identify their stratigraphical status. The results show that the main body of the highest terrace (Homersfield Terrace, Terrace 3) is not composed of river sediments, but of shallow marine sediments, and is a remnant of early Middle Pleistocene Wroxham Crag. River sediments, in the form of Anglian age (MIS 12) glaciofluvial Aldeby Sands and Gravels also exist in the area as a channel fill, cut through the Wroxham Crag, and reflect outwash erosion and sedimentation from a relatively proximal ice margin to the west. The results mean that the interpretations previously presented for the terrace landforms of the middle Waveney valley are not applicable. The issue of why the terrace stratigraphy, hitherto identified in East Anglia cannot be related to that for the River Thames to the south and the rivers of Midland England to the west, still requires further research.     

Deposition and provenance of the Early Pleistocene Siliceous Member in Westbury Cave,Somerset, England

The Early Pleistocene is an important interval in the Quaternary period as a time not only of climatic and environmental change, but also of key events in human evolution. However, knowledge of this period in northwest Europe is hampered by the limited extent of deposits of this age. Westbury Cave in the Mendip Hills of Somerset preserves an understudied example of fossil-bearing Early Pleistocene sediments, with rare potential to inform our understanding of British Early Pleistocene stratigraphy and landscape evolution outside the East Anglian Crag Basin. This study identifies the processes responsible for deposition of the Early Pleistocene Siliceous Member in Westbury Cave, thereby aiding taphonomic and palaeoenvironmental interpretations of associated fossil assemblages. New excavations revealed over ten metres of Siliceous Member stratigraphy, dominated by fine-grained silts/clays with interbedded sands and gravels, interpreted as being deposited within a subterranean lake or flooded conduit with fluvial input. All sediments sampled were reversely magnetised and are assigned to the Matuyama Reversed Chron. Lithological analysis of gravel clasts revealed variable components of durable non-local and non-durable local clasts. Gravels containing the latter are interpreted as distal talus slope deposits, and those lacking non-durable lithologies as stream or flood deposits. However, it remains unclear from available data whether apparently non-local clasts were sourced from long distance or stem from a more local, now denuded catchment. Siliceous Member bio- and magnetostratigraphy suggest that deposition occurred late in the Early Pleistocene, a period apparently otherwise unrepresented in the UK.     

Origin of Pleistocene outwash plains in various topographic settings, southern Poland

The style of Pleistocene outwash sedimentation in the foreland of the central European Mountains (the Carpathians and Sudetes) was controlled to a large extent by the topography. The deposits of three outwash plains formed in various morphological situations in front of the Upper Odra Lobe during the Odranian glaciation (older Saalian) are described here to show the conditions of their development and to reveal the relation between outwash plain sedimentology and proglacial topography. One outwash plain was formed between the mountain front and the ice-sheet margin, which advanced into the zone of fore-mountain alluvial fans. This outwash, deposited parallel to the ice margin, was under the considerable influence of extraglacial rivers flowing from the mountains. The second outwash was deposited in a small valley dipping away from the ice sheet and successively buried by glaciofluvial sediments. It evolved from a narrow valley sandur to an unconfined outwash plain. The third one was formed in a relatively broad, dammed valley dipping towards the ice sheet, where proglacial lake base level controlled the pattern of outwash channels as well as the character of the sedimentation. The studied outwash plains have different sedimentary successions. Their sedimentary profiles differ from each other even in the neighbouring valleys, indicating that distinct depositional conditions existed at the same time in closely spaced areas. It is suggested that the glaciomarginal deposition was controlled mostly by the orientation of the valleys and the inter-valley areas relative to the ice-sheet front. Size and morphology of valleys and interfluves were also important. Depending on their orientation, the outwash plains were fed by meltwaters in various ways; the dip of their surfaces was markedly different and the dynamics of the proglacial river systems were diverse.     

Fluvial deposits within the Pleistocene Crag at Thorpe St Andrew,Norwich, England

This paper records the findings at a temporary exposure at Thorpe St Andrew near Norwich, Norfolk, UK in Early and early Middle Pleistocene Crag deposits. The British Geological Survey (BGS) describes the particular formation exposed as Norwich Crag consisting of Early Pleistocene shallow marine sediments. The section shows a succession of sorted sands and gravels overlain by a sandy diamicton. Based on field evidence and clast analysis, the sands and gravels are interpreted as the product of point bar and overbank sedimentation and represent the product of a river cutting into and aggrading within the more widespread shallow marine deposits. Composition of the sediments indicates derivation, primarily from Wroxham Crag Formation, with a contribution from Norwich Crag. The sandy diamicton is interpreted as late Middle Pleistocene Corton Till that is recorded in the area. A distinct pattern of colour changes at the top of the sands and gravels is interpreted as a soil that developed on the fluvial sediments before being overridden by the glacier that deposited the Corton Till. The existence of the fluvial sediments within the regional shallow marine deposits suggests that a fall of sea-level, possibly due to climate cooling, while the elevation of the sediments and the adjacent Crag implies that the site has been uplifted since sedimentation. This is the first observation of terrestrial sediments within the shallow marine Crag. The paper also makes a contribution to understanding the diagenetic processes that give deposits within this region some distinctive colour and sediment patterns.     

A re-evaluation of the timing of the earliest reported human occupation of Britain: the age of the sediments at Happisburgh, eastern England

Lower Palaeolithic artefacts have been reported at Happisburgh, north Norfolk, in sediments that have been assigned to the late Early Pleistocene, in either marine isotope stage (MIS) 25 or 21, using magnetostratigraphy, biostratigraphy and clast lithology. However, the proposal that these sediments were deposited by the ancestral River Thames is inconsistent both with the established late Early Pleistocene palaeogeography of the region and with the dispositions of the contemporaneous Thames terraces. The Happisburgh deposits were evidently emplaced by a local river, which reworked older sediments that from their lithology had been derived largely from the Bytham River rather than the Thames catchment. Nonetheless, the potential significance of this sedimentary succession for early human dispersal and behaviour requires a conservative assessment of its youngest possible age. Although its basal part is clearly Early Pleistocene, there is nothing to preclude an early Middle Pleistocene age for the overlying sediments that have yielded the artefacts and the mammalian biostratigraphic evidence. It is indeed arguable that these sediments date from the cooling transition at the end of MIS 15c, and are thus younger than the artefact-bearing succession at Pakefield. Pending the availability of additional dating evidence, future discussion of the Happisburgh site should be qualified with respect to any claim for an Early Pleistocene age for the human occupation indicated.     

Quaternary vertical crustal motion and drainage evolution in East Anglia and adjoining parts of southern England: chronology of the Ingham River terrace deposits

Prior to its disruption during the Anglian glaciation (MIS 12), the Ingham or Bytham River used to flow eastwards across central England and East Anglia into the southern North Sea. It thus had a much larger catchment than any extant river system in Britain; its headwaters may well have been as far away as North Wales and/or NW England. Terrace deposits of this former river system crop out across East Anglia and, as for any other river, can be used to investigate uplift, landscape evolution and the physical properties of the underlying continental crust. However, such an investigation has hitherto been hampered by inconsistencies between different authors' terrace schemes; furthermore, and controversially, one such scheme has formed the basis for the inference that the region was affected by a pre‐Anglian (MIS 16) glaciation. By re‐examining the raw data, the Ingham River deposits are shown to be disposed in three terraces, inferred to date from MIS 16, 14 and 12. The evidence previously attributed to pre‐Anglian glaciation is associated with the youngest of these terraces, and thus marks the MIS 12 (i.e. Anglian) glaciation; the argument for glaciation of the region in MIS 16 is thus an artefact of previous miscorrelation of the terrace deposits. It is inferred that development of the very large Ingham River was synchronous with decapitation of the former ‘Greater Thames’, or ‘High‐level Kesgrave Thames’ river, some time between MIS 18 and MIS 16. Uplift histories at representative localities across East Anglia have been modelled using composite data sets, combining the terrace deposits of the Ingham River and of the post‐Anglian rivers Lark and Waveney. The sites modelled are typefied by much faster uplift in the early Middle Pleistocene than in the late Middle Pleistocene; this effect is shown to be a consequence of the relative thinness (no more than ～7–8 km thick) of the mobile lower‐crustal layer, itself a consequence of the low surface heat flow in the London Platform crustal province. The post‐Early Pleistocene uplift tapers eastward, consistent with the observed downstream convergence of the Ingham and Waveney terraces, and is close to zero near the modern coastline around Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth. Stratigraphic relationships between the Ingham terrace deposits and temperate‐stage marine and terrestrial deposits in this coastal area allow sites to be dated; thus, Pakefield and Corton date from MIS 15, whereas Norton Subcourse dates from MIS 17. The oldest known Lower Palaeolithic sites in the region, characterized by flake artefacts, are Pakefield (MIS 15) and Hengrave (?MIS 14); younger pre‐Anglian sites that have yielded handaxes and/or fossil material of the water vole Arvicola cantiana date from MIS 13. The minimal vertical crustal motion in this coastal area, where temperate‐stage deposits from different climate cycles crop out close to present‐day sea level, does not imply high crustal stability; instead, it indicates a ‘hinge zone’ between the uplifting hinterland and the subsiding depocentre in the southern North Sea.     

A sedimentation pattern in Anglian marginal meltwater channels from Suffolk, England

Several infilled glacial meltwater channels of Anglian age are described from SE Suffolk, U.K. These channels are up to 4km long, 150m wide and 8m deep. They possess a consistent pattern of infill comprising glacifluvial sands and gravels overlain by subglacial water-lain fine sands and silts; these pass conformably upwards through thinly interstratified tills and sands into basal tills. The channels were formed at the ice-margin. Their sedimentary infill indicates overriding by the ice-sheet and subsequent subglacial deposition.     

Gravels of the River Thames as a guide to Pleistocene catchment changes

Variability of composition and of pebble shape in river gravels are discussed. Catchment changes, progressive down-valley changes and less systematic cross-valley effects are recognized as sources of variability. Intercomponent ratios and pebble shape are analysed in the Pleistocene gravels of the Thames and its tributaries between High Wycombe and Hertford in England, and evidence of catchment change is identified. Glaciation on one or more occasions in the upper catchment of the Thames in the pre-Anglian Pleistocene is suggested to explain the high frequencies (>50 per cent) of far-travelled material in pre-Anglian gravels. The pattern of drainage development in the Vale of St. Albans at the time of the Anglian glaciation is also discussed     

Quaternary history of the Ayot Paleogene Outlier,Southeast England: A field and laboratory case-study in local geology with regional implications

Despite limited exposures, detailed field mapping and sedimentological analyses – particle size, clast petrography and fine-sand mineralogy (plus limited coarse silt and clay mineralogy) – have elucidated the ages, provenance and depositional environments of the complex and controversial Quaternary deposits covering the Ayot Paleogene Outlier. Most of the sediments were largely derived directly and/or indirectly from local facies of the Woolwich and Reading Formation. The oldest deposits are (Pre-)Pastonian proto-Thames gravels overlain by thin sands, which collectively represent crucial evidence for the earliest (Stoke Row) terrace of the proto-Thames. These materials were later thrust southwards by the Anglian ice close to its margin, which deposited a thin yet heterogeneous till at Ayot. This unit is correlated with the Ware Till, suggesting that the Anglian ice was thicker during the earlier of its two major southwestward incursions into the Vale of St Albans. An aeolian mantle was deposited on the Outlier during the Late Devensian; most of the blown material was incorporated into the upper regions of the till but some accumulated in depressions to form brickearths that resemble some Chiltern Brickearths. A colluvial apron developed during the Holocene, together with three swallow-holes. Some of these depositional events were separated by periods of poorly-preserved pedogenesis.     

Pleistocene sediments,soils and landscape evolution at Stebbing,Essex

Pleistocene sediments and soils exposed at Stebbing in central Essex, England are described, analysed and interpreted. The sand and gravel units above Eocene London Clay and Upper Pliocene Red Crag are shown to be a high level member of the Kesgrave Formation, with a surface immediately beneath that of the Westland Green Gravels, which are tentatively assigned to the Pre-Pastonian ‘a’ Stage of the British Quaternary succession. The rubified, argillic soil developed in the surface of these fluvial deposits is a composite of the Valley Farm and Barham Soils and displays micromorphological evidence of several phases of clay illuviation, gleying and clay coating disruption. Originally truncated and buried beneath Anglian gelifluction deposits, cover sand and till, the soil has been exhumed in most places by subsequent erosion. The full succession, however, is preserved within large gulls that formed by periglacial cambering prior to this erosion. More recent loess incorporation and pedogenesis have modified the exhumed soil and the materials within the gulls.     

Integrated chronological control on an archaeologically significant Pleistocene river terrace sequence: the Thames-Medway,eastern Essex,England

Late Middle Pleistocene Thames-Medway deposits in eastern Essex comprise both large expanses of Palaeolithic artefact-bearing river sands/gravels and deep channels infilled with thick sequences of fossiliferous fine-grained estuarine sediments that yield valuable palaeoenvironmental information. Until recently, chronological control on these deposits was limited to terrace stratigraphy and limited amino-acid racemisation (AAR) determinations. Recent developments in both this and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating make them potentially powerful tools for improving the chronological control on such sequences. This paper reports new AAR analyses and initial OSL dating from the deposits in this region. These results will help with ongoing investigation of patterns of early human settlement.Using AAR, the attribution by previous workers of the interglacial channel deposits to both MIS 11 (Tillingham Clay) and MIS 9 (Rochford and Shoeburyness Clays) is reinforced. Where there are direct stratigraphic relationships between AAR and OSL as with the Cudmore Grove and Rochford Clays and associated gravels, they agree well. Where OSL dating is the only technique available, it seems to replicate well, but must be treated with caution since there are relatively few aliquots. It is suggested on the basis of this initial OSL dating that the gravel deposits date from MIS 8 (Rochford and Cudmore Grove Gravels) and potentially also MIS 6 (Dammer Wick and Barling Gravels). However, the archaeological evidence from the Barling Gravel and the suggested correlations between this sequence and upstream Thames terraces conflict with this latter age estimate and suggest that it may need more investigation.     

Middle Pleistocene lacustrine deposits in eastern Essex,England and their palaeogeographical implications

Investigations in quarry exposures in the Asheldham Gravel and related deposits of southeast Essex are described. Section logging, mapping and borehole investigations are supported by clast lithological, heavy and clay mineralogical determinations. The sediments are derived from reworking of local Thames basin materials, fine sediment being predominantly from the London Clay. The sequence is shown to represent an aggradation that began as the fluvial infilling of the River Medway valley. The River Thames, diverted into this valley by glaciation further west, overwhelmed the Medway, reworking the deposits. The valley was subsequently drowned and fine laminated lake sediment was initially deposited. This was during a period when the valley was drowned by the glacial lake ponded in the southern North Sea basin by the Anglian/Elsterian ice sheet. Progradation by a braid-delta complex advanced along the valley and subsequently fluvial deposition returned. Valley widening and straightening accompanied the delta progradation. The deposits were dissected by deep fluvial valleys infilled by Hoxnian interglacial sediments. The Asheldham Gravel is therefore placed in the Anglian/Elsterian Stage.     

Late pleistocene (Devensian) glaciofluvial outwash at Banc-y-Warren,near Cardigan (west Wales)

On the southwest-facing slopes of a bedrock ridge lying between Cardigan Bay to the north and the Afon Teifi to the south stands a group of hills in which 30-35 m of cross-laminated and parallel-laminated sands with lenticular upward-fining gravel sequences are overlain by 10-12 m of gravel in a single foreset bed. The sediments mantle a surface of till sloping gently toward the southwest, were transported toward the southwest (across one margin of the Afon Teifi valley), and were cut by a system of densely arranged conjugate normal faults striking northwest-southeast. The lenticular gravels and fault system suggest that the deposits accumulated as a glaciofluvial outwash spread, and on top of an ice-lobe that became isolated in the Teifi valley during the downwasting of a glacier which had occupied Cardigan Bay and much of the country to the south. The large gravel foresets capping the succession are the only indication at Banc-y-Warren of the former existence of a lake, but neither a large nor deep body of water need be envisaged.     

Stratigraphy and sedimentology of Devensian (Dimlington Stadial) glacial deposits,east Yorkshire,England

The stratigraphy and sedimentology of the glacial deposits exposed along the coast of east Yorkshire are reviewed. Critical sections at Filey Brigg, Barmston and Skipsea are examined to reassess the stratigraphy of Devensian Dimlington Stadial glacial deposits in the light of recent developments in glacial sedimentology. Sedimentary and glaciotectonic structures studied in the field and by using scanning electron microscopy are emphasised. Two hypotheses are considered for the genesis of the interbedded diamictons and stratified sediments. The first involves the deposition of lodgement till and/or deformation till followed by meltout till, which was overridden to produce more deformation till, reflecting periods of ice stagnation punctuated by glacier thickening. The second hypothesis, which is favoured on the basis of field evidence and micromorphology, involves the vertical accretion of a deforming till layer associated with cavity/channel or tunnel valley fills, beneath active ice. At Barmston the upper part of the diamicton contains elongate pendant structures containing gravels, indicating that the diamicton was saturated and able to flow. The diamictons, therefore, represent a complex sequence of tills deposited and deformed by active ice during the Dimlington Stadial. Previously published stratigraphical schemes involving classifications of multiple tills in east Yorkshire should be simplified and it is more appropriate to assign these to a single formation, the Skipsea Till Formation. Rhythmic glaciolacustrine and proglacial glaciofluvial sediments overlie the tills at Barmston and Skipsea. These were deposited in sag basins during deglaciation as the tills settled and deformed under thickening sediment and as buried ice melted out. Extensive sands and gravels cap the succession and were deposited on a sandur during the later stages of deglaciation.     

Karst subsidence as a control on the accumulation and preservation of aeolian deposits: A Pleistocene example from a proglacial outwash setting,Ebro Basin,Spain

Meltwater flows emanating from the Pyrenees during the Pleistocene constructed a braided outwash plain in the Ebro Basin and led to the karstification of the Neogene gypsum bedrock. Synsedimentary evaporite dissolution locally increased subsidence rates and generated dolines and collapses that enabled the accumulation and preservation of outwash gravels and associated windblown deposits that were protected from erosion by later meltwater flows. In these localized depocentres, maximum rates of wind deceleration resulted from airflow expansion, enabling the accumulation of cross‐stratified sets of aeolian strata climbing at steep angles and thereby preserving up to 5 m thick sets. The outwash plain was characterized by longitudinal and transverse fluvial gravel bars, channels and windblown facies organized into aeolian sand sheets, transverse and complex aeolian dunes, and loess accumulations. Flat‐lying aeolian deposits merge laterally to partly deformed aeolian deposits encased in dolines and collapses. Synsedimentary evaporite dissolution caused gravels and aeolian sand deposits to subside, such that formerly near‐horizontal strata became inclined and generated multiple internal angular unconformities. During episodes when the wind was undersaturated with respect to its potential sand transporting capacity, deflation occurred over the outwash plain and coarse‐grained lags with ventifacts developed. Subsequent high‐energy flows episodically reached the aeolian dune field, leading to dune destruction and the generation of hyperconcentrated flow deposits composed in part of reworked aeolian sands. Lacustrine deposits in the distal part of the outwash plain preserve rhythmically laminated lutites and associated Gilbert‐type gravel deltas, which developed when fluvial streams reached proglacial lakes. This study documents the first evidence of an extensive Pleistocene proglacial aeolian dune field located in the Ebro Basin (41˙50° N), south of what has hitherto been considered to be the southern boundary of Pleistocene aeolian deposits in Europe. A non‐conventional mechanism (evaporite karst‐related subsidence) for the preservation of aeolian sands in the stratigraphic record is proposed.     

The Pleistocene terrace staircase of the River Thame, central-southern England, and its significance for regional stratigraphic correlation, drainage development, and vertical crustal motions

The Thame is one of the principal left-bank affluents of the Thames, the largest river in southern England; it joins the Upper Thames at Dorchester, ∼20 km downstream of Oxford. Its terraces include a younger group of four, which date from the late Middle Pleistocene and Late Pleistocene, are disposed subparallel to the modern river, and represent drainage within the modern catchment. At higher levels there are three older terraces, the Three Pigeons, Tiddington and Chilworth terraces, which are assigned to MIS 16, 14 and 12. With much gentler downstream gradients, these are fragmentary remnants of much more substantial fluvial deposits, indicating a much larger river that was disrupted by the Anglian (MIS 12) glaciation. This interpretation supersedes an earlier view that the glacigenic deposits in the Thame headwaters correlate with the Blackditch terrace, the highest of the younger group, which has hitherto provided an argument that the glaciation in this region occurred in MIS 10. It is suggested that the headwaters of the pre-Anglian ‘Greater Thame’ river were located near Northampton and that the Milton Sands of that area represent an upstream counterpart of the Chilworth terrace deposits. It is envisaged that this early Middle Pleistocene drainage geometry, located between the Jurassic limestone and Chalk escarpments, developed as a result of the increase in uplift rates that followed the Mid-Pleistocene Revolution (MPR). It is suggested that before this time, including during the Early Pleistocene, the modern Thame catchment and adjacent regions drained southeastward through the Chalk escarpment, but these small rivers lacked the erosional power to cut through the Chalk in pace with the faster uplift occurring in the early Middle Pleistocene, and so became diverted to the southwest, subparallel to the Chalk escarpment, to form the pre-Anglian ‘Greater Thame’ tributary of the Upper Thames. The post-MPR uplift is estimated to decrease northwestward from 90 m in the Middle Thames to 75 m near the Thame-Thames confluence and to 65 m upstream of Oxford. The post-Anglian (post-450 ka) component of uplift decreases northward from 33 m near the Thame-Thames confluence to an estimated ∼20 m in the Northampton area; the relative stability of the latter area makes feasible the proposed correlation between the Milton Sands and the pre-Anglian River Thame. Limited post-Anglian uplift in the Northampton area is also inferred from the upstream convergence of the terraces of the modern rivers Nene and Great Ouse. These observed lateral variations in vertical crustal motions reflect lateral variations in crustal properties (including heat flow, crustal thickness, and thickness of underplating at the base of the crust) that are known independently. This study thus provides, for the first time, an integrated explanation of the Pleistocene drainage development across a large region of central-southern England.     

The sliding bed facies in esker sands and gravels: a criterion for full-pipe (tunnel) flow?

The Guelph esker (Ontario, Canada) consists of a sinuous, steep-sided and segmented ridge which comprises poorly sorted, matrix-supported sands and gravels. These sands and gravels were probably deposited during the sliding bed stage which has been observed by others in closed-conduit hydraulic experiments. The poor sorting probably resulted from a high concentration of bed-material load in the lower part of a subglacial tunnel, sorting being restricted to that produced by particle collisions. Inclusive graphic standard deviation is characteristically large for the sands and gravels, indicating that virtually all sizes available were in transport. The overall grain size distribution shows a characteristic undulatory shape on arithmetic probability paper, mostly because of selective removal of pebble gravel and granule sizes. This poorly sorted fades is believed to be diagnostic of transport in a subglacial tunnel flowing full of water, and may be used to identify subglacial conditions in other eskers. Deltaic sands and gravels occur downcurrent of the esker and contain a greater diversity of structures; climbing-ripple cross-laminae, parallel laminae and massive structure, deposited in large-scale foresees at the end of a subglacial tunnel. These deltaic sands and gravels grade distally into outwash sands and gravels.     

Depositional features of a late Weichselian outwash fan; central East Jylland,Denmark

Four major sedimentary facies are present in coarse-grained, ice-marginal deposits from central East Jylland, Denmark. Facies A and B are matrix-supported gravels deposited by subaerial sediment gravity flows as mudflows (facies A) and debris flows (facies B). Facies C consists of clast-supported, water-laid gravels and facies D are cross-bedded sand and granules. The facies can be grouped into three facies associations related to the supraglacial and proglacial environments: (1) the flow-till association is made up of alternating beds of remobilized glacial mixton (facies A) and well-sorted cross-bedded sand (facies D); (2) the outwash apron association resembles the sediments of alluvial fans in containing coarse-grained debris-flow deposits (facies B), water-laid gravel deposited by sheet floods (facies C) and cross-bedded sand and granules (facies D) from braided distributaries; (3) the valley sandur association comprises water-laid gravel (facies C) interpreted as sheet bars and longitudinal bars interbedded with cross-bedded sand and granules (facies D) deposited in channels between bars in a braided environment.The general coarsening-upward trend of the sedimentary sequences caused by the transition of bars and channel-dominated facies to debris-flow-dominated facies indicate an increasing proximality of the outwash deposits, picturing the advance and still stand of a large continental lowland ice-sheet. The depositional properties suggest that sedimentation was caused by melting along a relatively steep, active glacier margin as a first step towards the final vanishing of the Late Weichselian icesheet (the East Jylland ice) covering eastern Denmark.