Sea‐level changes,river activity,soil development and glaciation around the western margins of the southern North Sea Basin during the Early and early Middle Pleistocene: evidence from Pakefield,Suffolk, UK

This paper outlines evidence from Pakefield (northern Suffolk), eastern England, for sea‐level changes, river activity, soil development and glaciation during the late Early and early Middle Pleistocene (MIS 20–12) within the western margins of the southern North Sea Basin. During this time period, the area consisted of a low‐lying coastal plain and a shallow offshore shelf. The area was drained by major river systems including the Thames and Bytham. Changes in sea‐level caused several major transgressive–regressive cycles across this low‐relief region, and these changes are identified by the stratigraphic relationship between shallow marine (Wroxham Crag Formation), fluvial (Cromer Forest‐bed and Bytham formations) and glacial (Happisburgh and Lowestoft formations) sediments. Two separate glaciations are recognised—the Happisburgh (MIS 16) and Anglian (MIS 12) glaciations, and these are separated by a high sea level represented by a new member of the Wroxham Crag Formation, and several phases of river aggradation and incision. The principal driving mechanism behind sea‐level changes and river terrace development within the region during this time period is solar insolation operating over 100‐kyr eccentricity cycles. This effect is achieved by the impact of cold climate processes upon coastal, river and glacial systems and these climatically forced processes obscure the neotectonic drivers that operated over this period of time. © British Geological Survey/Natural Environment Research Council copyright 2005. Reproduced with the permission of BGS/NERC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Neogene and Lower Pleistocene crags of Upper Normandy: Biostratigraphic revision and paleogeographic implications

The biostratigraphic revision of the benthic foraminifera present in the coastal Cenozoic quartzose and shelly sands (crags) at Fécamp and Valmont (Seine-Maritime) reveals Early Pliocene (Fécamp) and Early Pleistocene (Valmont) ages. The Tortonian-Messinian thanatocœnosis contained in the Fécamp Crag shows the presence of a former bryozoan-rich platform on the floor of the Channel that was reworked during the Lower Pliocene transgression. Tortonian-Messinian and Lower Pliocene deposits have been found in Belgium, England, Brittany, and at Fécamp, but are absent in Cotentin (North-West Normandy), which was uplifted at this period. The Lower Pleistocene tidal sands and crags described in Cotentin, Upper Normandy and the southern North Sea Basin indicate a marine passage between the Channel and the North Sea.     

Evidence for a mid‐Pleistocene shift of ice‐drift pattern in the Nordic seas

Sediment proxy records from a continuous, 1.5 million year long deep‐sea sediment core from a site in the western Norwegian Sea were used to obtain new insights into the nature of palaeoceanographic change in the northern North Atlantic (Nordic seas) during the climatic shift of the Mid‐Pleistocene Revolution (MPR). Red‐green sediment colour and magnetic susceptibility records both reveal significant differences in their mean values when comparing the intervals older than 700 000 yr (700 ka) with those from the past 500 kyr. The timing and duration of these changes indicates that the MPR in the Nordic seas is characterised by a gradual transition lasting about 200 kyr. Together with further sedimentological evidence this suggests that the mid‐Pleistocene climate shift was accompanied by a general change in ice‐drift pattern. It is further proposed that prior to the onset of the major late Pleistocene glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere a significant proportion of the ice in the eastern Nordic seas originated from a southern provenance, whereas later it dominantly came from the surrounding landmasses. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

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.     

Pleistocene marine deposits in the coastal areas of Kola Peninsula (Russia)

On the basis of field data, datings from both electron spin resonance – and optically stimulated luminescence, and micro- and macrofauna, in addition to presence of diatoms, three Late Pleistocene marine units have been identified in the coastal areas of the Kola Peninsula. The stratigraphically lowest sequence is correlated to the Ponoi Beds and the Boreal transgression, attributed to the marine isotope stages (MIS) 5e to 5d in the White Sea depression and to MIS 5e to 5c in the Barents Sea. Thermophilic fauna and diatoms indicate normal water salinity and a water temperature above zero. The second marine unit, referred as the Strel'na Beds, can be correlated with the Early Weischselian transgression, termed the Belomorian transgression. With low water salinity and a water temperature similar or colder than the present times, Belomorian transgressions are reliably detected in the White Sea and are not clearly found in the Barents Sea. The results obtained from the sediments of the Ponoi and Strel'na Beds indicate a continuously existing marine reservoir from 130 to 80–70 ka ago (entire MIS 5) in the White Sea depression. The early Middle Weichselian Barents–Kara ice-sheet invasion and its recession might have caused the glacioeustatic Middle Weichselian (MIS 3) transgression, and the third Late Pleistocene marine sequence has been deposited in the regressing shallow cold sea with less saline waters. The results help in the understanding of the history of Late Quaternary ice sheets in North Eurasia and provide evidence for the debatable Early and Middle Weichselian marine events.     

Late Weichselian glaciation history of the northern North Sea

Based on new data from the Fladen, Sleipner and Troll areas, combined with earlier published results, a glaciation curve for the Late Weichselian in the northern North Sea is constructed. The youngest date on marine sedimentation prior to the late Weichselian maximum ice extent is 29.4 ka BP. At this time the North Sea and probably large parts of southern Norway were deglaciated (corresponding to the Alesund interstadial in western Norway). In a period between 29.4 and c. 22 ka BP, the northern North Sea experienced its maximum Weichselian glaciation with a coalescing British and Scandinavian ice sheet. The first recorded marine inundation is found in the Fladen area where marine sedimentation started close to 22 ka BP. After this the ice fronts receded both to the east and west. The North Sea Plateau, and possibly parts of the Norwegian Trench, were ice-free close to 19.0 ka, and after this a short readvance occurred in this area. This event is correlated with the advance recorded at Dimlington, Yorkshire, and the corresponding climatostratigraphic unit is denoted the Dimlington Stadial (18.5 ka to 15.1 ka). The Norwegian Trench was deglaciated at 15.1 ka in the Troll area. The data from the North Sea, together with the results from Andwa, northern Norway (Vorren et al . 1988; Møller et al . 1992), suggest that the maximum extent of the last glaciation along the NW-European seaboard from the British Isles to northern Norway was prior to c . 22 ka BP.     

Sodium and strontium in mollusc shells: preservation,palaeosalinity and palaeotemperature of the Middle Pleistocene of eastern England

This paper revisits the utility of sodium (Na) content in aragonite and calcite mollusc shells as an indicator of palaeosalinity. The data come mainly from a related suite of Middle Pleistocene marine and freshwater fossils that have been subject to broadly similar diagenetic histories. Environmental salinity is re-affirmed as the primary factor in determining the sodium content of modern and ancient mollusc shells: values <2000 ppm Na are generally indicative of non-marine environments while values >2000 Na ppm are typically from marine shells. There is a positive relationship between Na (salinity) and Sr which is a helpful discriminator of palaeosalinity in the fossil data set. The Na and Sr data give confidence that the fossil shells have not suffered pervasive diagenetic alteration and that the marine fossils lived in fully marine conditions. Oxygen isotope values in the best-preserved, fully marine fossil shells, suggest Middle Pleistocene ‘eastern England’ seawater temperatures were broadly similar to those of the modern North Sea.     

Pleistocene subglacial tunnel valleys in the central North Sea basin: 3‐D morphology and evolution

Four phases of cross‐cutting tunnel valleys imaged on 3‐D seismic datasets are mapped within the Middle–Late Pleistocene succession of the central North Sea basin (Witch Ground area). In plan the tunnel valleys form complex anastomosing networks, with tributary valleys joining main valleys at high angles. The valleys have widths ranging from 250 to 2300 m, and base to shoulder relief varying between 30 and 155 m, with irregular long‐axis profiles characteristic of erosion by water driven by glaciostatic pressures. The youngest phase of tunnel valleys are smaller and have a thinner infill than the older generations. The fill of the larger valleys comprises three seismic facies, the lowermost of which has high amplitudes and is discontinuous. The middle facies consists of wedge‐shaped packages of low‐angle dipping reflectors and is overlain by a facies characterised by sub‐horizontal reflectors, which onlap the valley margins. The seismic character, and comparison with lithologies identified in other northwest European Pleistocene tunnel valleys both onshore and offshore, suggests that the lower two seismic facies are most likely sand and gravel‐dominated, while the uppermost facies consists of glaciolacustrine and marine muds. The 3‐D morphology of the valley margins combined with the geometry of the infill packages suggest that episodic discharge of subglacial meltwater was responsible for incising the valleys and depositing at least some of the infill. Proglacial glaciofluvial deposits are inferred to account for some of the fill overlying the subglacial deposits. Glaciolacustrine and marine muds filled remaining valley topography as the ice sheet retreated. The preserved valley margins are shown to be time‐transgressive erosion surfaces that record changes in geometry of the tunnel valley system as it evolved through time, implying that valleys associated with each ice‐sheet advance/retreat cycle were dynamic and probably long‐lived. Within the constraints of the existing stratigraphy the oldest tunnel valleys in the Witch Ground area of the central North Sea are most likely to be Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 12 (Elsterian, ca. 470 ka) in age and the youngest pre‐MIS 5e (last interglacial, ca. 120 ka). If each tunnel valley phase was formed during the retreat of a major ice sheet then four glaciations with ice coverage of the central North Sea are recorded in the pre‐Weichselian, Middle–Late Pleistocene stratigraphy. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sediment distribution and provenance since Late Pleistocene in Laizhou Bay,Bohai Sea,China

There are three transgression-regression events and evolutions of the sedimentary environment by sea level changes since the Pleistocene in the southern section of the Bohai Sea, China. It is obvious that a multi-source fluvial delta sedimentary system may be more dominant in a sedimentary environment. Based on previous research and survey or historical data, we carried out studies on the division of sedimentary units, sedimentary facies analysis and strata division and comparison, which aim to establish the sedimentary stratigraph of Laizhou Bay. We focus on the sedimentary procession of the Laizhou Bay since the early Late Pleistocene. It can be divided into two glacial periods and three interglacial periods, corresponding to two regression and three transgression events in Laizhou Bay since Late Pleistocene. In 124.6–72.0 ka BP, 60.0–24.4 ka BP and 10.2–4.0 ka BP, three times warm-wet periods occurred, respectively corresponding to the Cangzhou transgression, Xianxian transgression, and Huanghua transgression. In 72.0–60.0 ka BP and 24.4–10.2 ka BP, two dry and cold periods, it was the continental sedimentary environment, corresponding to Wurm early glacier and Wurm late glacier. The results show: (1) Sediments have the characteristics of phase and stage under the terrestrial input of the Yellow River and middle-small rivers in the southern section of the Bohai Sea. (2) PI moved towards coastal in Cangzhou transgression strata in early Late Pleistocene. PI moved northward from land in Xianxian transgression strata in the late Pleistocene. PI moved further north in the Huanghua transgression strata in Holocene. (3) During the regressive period, the land source input increased and the estuarine or lagoon sedimentation developed, which manifested as progradational superposition. (4) During the transgressive period, it mainly developed shallow coastal sediment and transitionally formed regressive deposition to the south in delta/tidal flat deposition.©2019 China Geology Editorial Office.     

Signature and timing of the Kattegat Ice Stream: onset of the Last Glacial Maximum sequence at the southwestern margin of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet

At the end of the Middle Weichselian (30–25 ka BP) a glacier advance from southern Norway, termed the Kattegat Ice Stream, covered northern Denmark, the Kattegat Sea floor and the Swedish West Coast during onset of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) at the southwest margin of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet. The lithostratigraphic unit deposited by the ice stream is the till of the Kattegat Formation (Kattegat till). Because morphological features have been erased by later glacial events, stratigraphic control and timing are decisive. The former ice stream is identified by the dispersal of Oslo indicator erratics from southern Norway and by glaciodynamic structures combined with glaciotectonic deformation of subtill sediments. Ice movement was generally from northerly directions and the flow pattern is fan-shaped in marginal areas. To the east, the Kattegat Ice Stream was flanked by passive glaciers in southern Sweden and its distribution was probably governed by the presence of low permeability and highly deformable marine and lacustrine deposits. When glaciers from southern Norway blocked the Norwegian Channel, former marine basins in the Skagerrak and Kattegat experienced glaciolacustrine conditions around 31–29 ka BP. The Kattegat Ice Stream became active some time between 29 ka BP and 26 ka BP, when glaciers from the Oslo region penetrated deep into the shallow depression occupied by the Kattegat Ice Lake. Deglaciation and an interlude with periglacial and glaciolacustrine sedimentation lasted until c. 24–22 ka BP and were succeeded by the Main Glacier Advance from central Sweden reaching the limit of Late Weichselian glaciations in Denmark around 22–20 ka BP, the peak of the LGM. This was followed by deglaciation and marine inundation in the Kattegat and Skagerrak around 17 ka BP.     

Early and Middle Pleistocene landscapes of eastern England

This paper reviews the pattern of climate and environmental change in eastern England over the period of the Early and Middle Pleistocene, focussing especially upon northern East Anglia. Particular attention is given to the climate and tectonics that have brought about these changes and the distinctive geology, topography and biology that has developed. Throughout, an attempt is made to describe the new models that have been proposed for the Early and Middle Pleistocene of eastern England, and explain the reasons for these changes. The Early Pleistocene experienced relatively high insulation and relatively low magnitude climatic change and is represented primarily by non-climatically forced processes in the form of tidal current- and wave-activity which formed shallow marine deposits. It is possible to recognise a tectonic control in the distribution of deposits of this age because the surface processes do not have the power to remove this signature. The early Middle Pleistocene was dominated by higher magnitude climatic change involving, occasionally, climatic extremes that ranged from permafrost to mediterranean. The landscape at this time was dominated by the behaviour of major rivers (Thames, Bytham, Ancaster) and extensive coastal activity. In the latter part of the early Middle Pleistocene and the Late Middle Pleistocene the climate experienced major changes which resulted in periods of lowland glaciation and short intervals when the climate was warmer than the present. Details of tectonic activity are difficult to identify because they are removed by powerful surface processes, but it is possible to infer uplift focussed on the major interfluves of central England and subsidence in the North Seas basin. In the areas of glaciation the landscape changed radically from an organised terrain dominated by large rivers and extensive shallow coastal zones to complex, with small valleys, disrupted drainage and often discontinuous river, slope and coastal deposits. Likewise the switching off of the North Sea Delta and the opening of the Strait of Dover, separating Britain from continental Europe can be attributed to the onset of lowland glaciation. The case is made that eastern England was glaciated four times during the Middle Pleistocene: during MIS 16, 12, 10 and 6, and attention is given to recent evidence contradicting this model. Over the period of the Middle Pleistocene there is evidence for high biomass production occurring over short intervals coinciding with the climatic optima of MIS 19, 17, 15, 13, 11, and 7c, 7a and during most of these warmer periods, extending back to c. 750 ka (MIS 19/17), there is evidence in the region for the brief appearance of humans.     

Quaternary denudation of southern Fennoscandia – evidence from the marine realm

Throughout the last 1.1 million years repeated glaciations have modified the southern Fennoscandian landscape and the neighbouring continental shelf into their present form. The glacigenic erosion products derived from the Fennoscandian landmasses were transported to the northern North Sea and the SE Nordic Seas continental margin. The prominent sub‐marine Norwegian Channel trough, along the south coast of Norway, was the main transport route for the erosion products between 1.1 and 0.0 Ma. Most of these erosion products were deposited in the North Sea Fan, which reaches a maximum thickness of 1500 m and has nearly 40 000 km³ of sediments. About 90% of the North Sea Fan sediments have been deposited during the last 500 000 years, in a time period when fast‐moving ice streams occupied the Norwegian Channel during each glacial stage. Back‐stripping the sediment volumes in the northern North Sea and SE Nordic Seas sink areas, including the North Sea Fan, to their assumed Fennoscandian source area gives an average vertical erosion of 164 m for the 1.1–0.0 Ma time period. The average 1.1–0.0 Ma erosion rate in the Fennoscandian source area is estimated to be 0.15 mm a^?1. We suggest, however, that large variations in erosion rates have existed through time and that the most intense Fennoscandian landscape denudation occurred during the time period of repeated shelf edge ice advances, namely from Marine Isotope Stage 12 (c. 0.5 Ma) onwards.     

Pleistocene stratigraphy in the Devils Hole Area,Central North Sea: Foraminiferal and amino-acid evidence

A detailed study of the foraminiferal assemblages from the 229.1-m-deep core 81/34 in the central North Sea has been combined with a series of measurements of the isoleucine epimerisation of foraminiferal tests. A total of 17 foraminiferal zones have been established and both the faunal compositions and the amino-acid values suggest that a major part of the sequence represents deposits of early and middle Pleistocene age. Only the uppermost zone is referred to the late Pleistocene. The sequence mainly comprises a series of marine zones from cold periods, but with some barren, possibly non-marine intervals in between. Only two of the foraminiferal zones can be referred to interglacial periods. The oldest one of these, defined here as the Devils Hole Interglacial, may belong to the latter part of the Cromerian Complex, while the upper warm interval is correlated with the Holsteinian of northwest Europe on the basis of its amino-acid values. A detailed stratigraphical correlation between core 81/34 and the neighbouring core 81/29 is suggested on the basis of their foraminiferal content, palaeomagnetic evidence and amino-acid measurements from both cores. A characteristic feature of both sequences is that most of the Quaternary record is missing. Similar episodic patterns of deposition and erosion have been reported previously from the North Sea area.     

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.     

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.     

Paleogeography of the Upper Rhine Graben (URG) and the Swiss Molasse Basin (SMB) from Eocene to Pliocene

Twenty paleogeographic maps are presented for Middle Eocene (Lutetian) to Late Pliocene times according to the stratigraphical data given in the companion paper by Berger et al. this volume. Following a first lacustrine-continental sedimentation during the Middle Eocene, two and locally three Rupelian transgressive events were identified with the first corresponding with the Early Rupelian Middle Pechelbronn beds and the second and third with the Late Rupelian Serie Grise (Fischschiefer and equivalents). During the Early Rupelian (Middle Pechelbronn beds), a connection between North Sea and URG is clearly demonstrated, but a general connection between North Sea, URG and Paratethys, via the Alpine sea, is proposed, but not proved, during the late Rupelian. Whereas in the southern URG, a major hiatus spans Early Aquitanian to Pliocene times, Early and Middle Miocene marine, brackish and freshwater facies occur in the northern URG and in the Molasse Basin (OMM, OSM); however, no marine connections between these basins could be demonstrated during this time. After the deposition of the molasse series, a very complex drainage pattern developed during the Late Miocene and Pliocene, with a clear connection to the Bresse Graben during the Piacenzian (Sundgau gravels). During the Late Miocene, Pliocene and Quaternary sedimentation persisted in the northern URG with hardly any interruptions. The present drainage pattern of the Rhine river (from Alpine area to the lower Rhine Embayment) was not established before the Early Pleistocene.     

Palaeomagnetic correlation and dating of Plio/Pleistocene sediments at the southern margins of the North Sea Basin

A series of discontinuous sediment sequences, of Plio/Pleistocene age, occur onshore around the southern North Sea margins, notably in the East Anglian region of Britain. Intensive lithological and palaeontological analyses of these sediments have shown that they record both major and minor oscillations in climate, sea level and environmental conditions. However, significant uncertainties exist regarding the absolute and relative chronostratigraphies of many of these sequences, hindering understanding of the relative impacts of climatic, eustatic and tectonic changes on the palaeogeographic development of the southern North Sea basin. Here, a number of key East Anglian Plio/Pleistocene sites are subjected to robust palaeomagnetic and mineralogical examination, in order to determine those sediments which display reliable, syn‐depositional magnetic polarities, which are thus of use in ascribing a palaeomagnetically determined age from comparison with the Geomagnetic Polarity Timescale (GPTS). Based on a range of palaeomagnetic and complementary mineralogical methods, reliable palaeomagnetic directions were obtained from eight sites, with reversed polarities displayed by sediments from three sites. These polarity determinations can be used to infer absolute ages and test published, between‐site correlations. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Early Pleistocene Praetiglian and Ludhamian pollen stages in the North Sea Basin and their relationship to the marine isotope record

In this paper, the currently accepted correlation of the Early Pleistocene Ludhamian stage of England with the Tiglian‐A sub‐stage of the Netherlands is challenged. Recent investigations of Early Pleistocene marine North Sea deposits from a borehole near Noordwijk (the Netherlands) yielded evidence from molluscs, dinoflagellate cysts and sporomorphs for an alternation of warm‐temperate and arctic intervals within the Praetiglian and Tiglian stages. Marine equivalents of the terrestrial‐based pollen sub‐stages Tiglian A and B have been recognised in the upper part of the sequence. A Praetiglian age can be assigned to the lower part of the sequence on the basis of mollusc analysis. Within the Praetiglian, an alternation of warm and cold phases has been recognised from both the dinoflagellate cyst and molluscan records. Three cold phases within the Praetiglian are tentatively correlated with marine isotope stages (MIS) 96–100. The molluscan assemblages provide evidence for climate forcing of the sea level: highest sea levels are reached in the warm‐temperate intervals. Within the Praetiglian, an interval with an acme zone of the dinoflagellate cyst Impagidinium multiplexum, is correlated with the Ludhamian and tentatively linked to MIS 97 and/or MIS 96. The cold molluscan assemblages from the Noordwijk borehole include an acme zone of Megayoldia thraciaeformis, the first and only occurrence of this North Pacific bivalve in the North Sea Basin. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Late Cenozoic tectonics and stratigraphy of northwestern Anatolia: the effects of the North Anatolian Fault to the region

In northwest Anatolia, there is a mosaic of different morpho-tectonic fragments within the western part of the right-lateral strike-slip North Anatolian Fault (NAF) Zone. These were developed from compressional and extensional tectonic regimes during the paleo- and neo-tectonic periods of Turkish orogenic history. A NE-SW-trending left-lateral strike-slip fault system (Adapazari-Karasu Fault) extends through the northern part of the Sakarya River Valley and began to develop within a N–S compressional tectonic regime which involved all of northern Anatolia during Middle Eocene to early Middle Miocene times. Since the end of Middle Miocene times, this fault system forms a border between a compressional tectonic regime in the eastern area eastwards from the northern part of the Sakarya River Valley, and an extensional tectonic regime in the Marmara region to the west. The extension caused the development of basins and ridges, and the incursions of the Mediterranean Sea into the site of the future Sea of Marmara since Late Miocene times. Following the initiation in late Middle Miocene times and the eastward propagation of extension along the western part of the NAF, a block (North Anatolian Block) began to form in the northern Anatolia region since the end of Pliocene times. The Adapazari-Karasu Fault constitutes the western boundary of this block which is bounded by the NAF in the south, the Northeast Anatolian Fault in the east, and the South Black Sea Thrust Fault in the north. The northeastward movement of the North Anatolian Block caused the formation of a marine connection between the Black Sea and the Aegean/Mediterranean Sea during the Pleistocene.