Late Devensian and Holocene relative sea‐level change in North Wales,UK

Deglacial sea‐level index points defining relative sea‐level (RSL) change are critical for testing glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) model output. Only a few observations are available from North Wales and until recently these provided a poor fit to GIA model output for the British‐Irish Ice Sheet. We present results of an integrated offshore geophysical (seismic reflection), coring (drilling rig), sedimentological, micropalaeontological (foraminifera), biostratigraphical (palynology) and geochronological (AMS ¹⁴C) investigation into a sequence of multiple peat/organic sediment horizons interbedded within a thick estuarine–marine sequence of minerogenic clay‐silts to silty sands from the NE Menai Strait, North Wales. Ten new sea‐level index points and nine new limiting dates from the Devensian Late‐glacial and early Holocene are integrated with twelve pre‐existing Holocene sea‐level index points and one limiting point from North Wales to generate a regional RSL record. This record is similar to the most recent GIA predictions for North Wales RSL change, supporting either greater ice load and later deglaciation than in the GIA predictions generated before 2004, or a modified eustatic function. There is no evidence for a mid‐Holocene highstand. Tidally corrected RSL data indicate initial breaching of the Menai Strait between 8.8 and 8.4 ka BP to form a tidal causeway, with final submergence between 5.8 and 4.6 ka BP. Final breaching converted the NE Menai Strait from a flood‐dominated estuary into a high energy ebb tidal delta with extensive tidal scouring of pre‐existing Late‐glacial and Holocene sequences. The study confirms the value of utilising offshore drilling/coring technology to recover sea‐level records which relate to intervals when rates of both eustatic and isostatic change were at their greatest, and therefore of most value for constraining GIA models. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Palynology of organic beds below Devensian glacigenic sediments at Pen-y-bryn,Gwynedd, North Wales

Pollen diagrams from organic facies overlain by glacigenic sediments at Pen-y-bryn, North Wales (53°7′N, 4°16′W), suggest that it is the first locality in the British Isles to provide evidence for several Devensian interstadials prior to Devensian stadial glaciation(s). The evidence is not, however, unequivocal. At least two main episodes of organic sedimentation are indicated, separated by an interval of uncertain duration. One eposide records a Pinus-Picea-Betula forest. A second, possibly later, event, with tree pollen less than 10% of total land pollen (TLP), suggests a cool, largely unforested environment. A third episode, with tree pollen up to 25% of TLP, may be related to the latter or be of intermediate age, whereas a fourth and later episode of organic accumulation may be of reworked material. Radiocarbon dating of organic deposits and of a wood macrofossil enclosed in basal till is inconclusive, as is preliminary uranium-series dating. The principal biogenic episodes may correlate with Oxygen Isotope Substages 5c and 5a, but as the pollen records reflect facies floras, the correlation remains tentative; it is also possible that other temperate periods are recorded. Further resolution of the chronostratigraphy is required to help clarify the problematic correlation of interstadial and stadial events in northwest Europe and to correlate more accurately the biogenic and glacigenic facies at Pen-y-bryn with their Pleistocene equivalents elsewhere.     

Evolution of a periglacial landscape in the Late Devensian: environments and palaeobotany of the Mepal area,Cambridgeshire, England

The landscape evolution of the Mepal area from Late Devensian Block Fen Terrace times to the beginning of the Flandrian, a period of ca. 8000 radiocarbon years, is reconstructed. Stratigraphy is based on borehole transects and single boreholes, centred on a depression between the Block Fen Terrace and the Isle of Ely. Within the depression is a Devensian late‐glacial sequence, with the Windermere Interstadial represented by radiocarbon‐dated organic sediments. Pollen and plant macroscopic remains of the late‐glacial sediments are analysed. Plant communities with Betula developed in the interstadial. Before and after the interstadial there is much reworked pollen in the inorganic sediments, derived from local pre‐Devensian Pleistocene sediments, including temperate Ipswichian Stage sediments, and from mass‐wasting of the local Jurassic bedrock. Periods of such mass‐movement occur before and after the deposition of the late‐glacial lake sediments. Deposition of aeolian sediment occurs later than the main period of mass movement, but before the Windermere Interstadial. The relationship of the aeolian sediments in time and space to permafrost, indicated by local contraction polygons and cracks, is discussed. Solifluction diverted the flow of the River Great Ouse from a northeast direction in Block Fen Terrace times to a southwest direction as a channel developed to the west of the Chatteris–March ‘island’. This led to a drainage divide in Flandrian times. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Radiocarbon dating the Devensian Lateglacial in Britain: New evidence from Llanilid,South Wales

Radiocarbon dates are described from a section through Lateglacial and early Flandrian sediments at Llanilid, Mid-Glamorgan, South Wales. Comparisons between age determinations on the alkali soluble (humic) and alkali insoluble (humin) organic fractions from 12 biostratigraphic horizons reveal the extent of contamination by both older and younger carbon residues. The Llanilid time-scale suggests that for the Lateglacial, the earliest organic sediments date from around 13 200 yr BP, the early Interstadial Juniperus maximum occurred at ca. 12 400-12 500 yr BP with a marked decline some 200 years later, the main Betula phase lasted only from ca. 11 700 to 11 400 yr BP and the end of the Interstadial occurred around 11 100 yr BP. The beginning of the Flandrian dates from ca. 10 000 yr BP, the Juniperus maximum occurred approximately 200 years later, the expansion of birch woodland began around 9600 yr BP, while the first hazel arrived in the area at ca. 9300 yr BP. These age determinations are discussed in the context of radiocarbon dates from comparable biostratigraphic horizons in western Britain and the dating of Lateglacial events in the ocean core records from the North Atlantic.     

Loch Lomond Stadial glaciers in the Aran and Arenig Mountains,North Wales,Great Britain

Geomorphological evidence for four former local glaciers has been mapped in the Aran and Arenig Mountains, North Wales. Former glacial extent was deduced from the distribution and assemblage of end and lateral moraines, hummocky moraine, boulder limits, drift limits and periglacial trimlines. Comparison of infilled lake sediment stratigraphies inside and outside of the former glacier limits suggests a Loch Lomond Stadial (Late Devensian) age of the former glaciers (c. 12.9–11.5 cal. ka BP ). This finding is also supported by periglacial–landform contrasts between the land inside and outside of the glacier limits. Reconstruction of the four glaciers illustrates a mean equilibrium line altitude (ELA) of c. 504 m. From the reconstructed ELAs and the combination of precipitation and snowblow input for total accumulation, by analogy with Norwegian glaciers, a mean sea‐level July temperature is calculated at 8.4°C. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Late Devensian glaciation along the border of northeast Wales

The glacigenic succession along the border of northeast Wales records the advance, coalescence and subsequent uncoupling of Welsh and Irish Sea ice-sheets during the Late Devensian cold stage. During coalescence, extensive basal tills were deposited and considerable diversion of pre-existing drainage was accomplished by subglacial meltwater. Analysis of borehole data and quarry exposure indicates that a complex assemblage of ice-contact, proglacial fluviatile and lacustrine environments was developed during uncoupling and subsequent retreat. Neither of the previously proposed models for the formation of the so-called Wrexham ‘delta-terrace’ are adequate to explain the wide variety of sedimentary successions observed and the feature is a complex, diachronous structure that reflects rapidly changing depositionai conditions, including ice-front alluvial fans, sandar and proglacial and ice-contact lakes, formed at the margin of a retreating ice-sheet.     

Temporal changes in subglacial meltwater activity: field evidence from the late Devensian in the north of Ireland

Temporal changes in meltwater abundance, distribution and characteristics (controlling subglacial processes and ice sheet dynamics) can be inferred from subglacial sediment successions. Field evidence for changes in subglacial meltwater characteristics over time is presented from two sites (Doonan, Drummee) near a former late Weichselian (Devensian) ice centre in the north of Ireland. On a macroscale, both sites investigated show subglacial diamicton overlying glacially planated bedrock platforms. In more detail, primary sedimentary structures and facies variability show a complex relationship between depositional processes and meltwater characteristics at the ice/bed interface (IBI). Sedimentary evidence suggests sediment transport and deposition took place by low-viscosity subglacial slurries (mobile sediment–meltwater admixtures), which are part of a continuum between the processes of subglacial sediment deformation and subglacial meltwater flooding. Subtle changes in meltwater abundance and distribution at the IBI controlled slurry rheology, mechanisms of particle support and detailed sediment depositional processes.     

Late Devensian environments in the Vale of Mowbray, North Yorkshire, UK: evidence from palynology

Two radiocarbon-dated Lateglacial pollen diagrams from the Vale of Mowbray (northern Vale of York) are presented from sites in the lowlands between the washlands courses of the rivers Swale and Ure in North Yorkshire, an area with little previous palynological research despite its proximity to the Devensian glacial advance limits in eastern England. The profiles, from Snape Mires and Nosterfield, include the Loch Lomond Stadial (Younger Dryas) and the Holocene transition, while that from Snape Mires also includes the period from the early part of the Lateglacial Interstadial. This profile differs from most published Interstadial diagrams from the Yorkshire region in having a long-delayed expansion of tree and shrub taxa. Juniperus (juniper) remains important after vegetation development takes place and the pollen record includes evidence of two cold climate oscillations before the maximum development of Betula (birch) woodland near the end of the Lateglacial Interstadial. At both profiles Artemisia (mugwort) frequencies are lower during the Loch Lomond Stadial than at many regional sites, probably due to edaphic factors in these lowland locations. The two sites provide valuable environmental data that enable comparison between the more wooded Lateglacial vegetation to the south in the Vale of York and Humberside and the more open contemporaneous vegetation to the north in the Durham and Northumberland lowlands.     

On the history of the Late Devensian Lake Sparks in southern Fenland,Cambridgeshire, England

A section in a gravel quarry at Somersham, Cambridgeshire, has revealed evidence for a lake, named Lake Sparks, in Fenland during the Late Devensian substage of the Pleistocene. Varved sediments were deposited in this lake over a minimum period of ca. 65 yr. The varved clays contain red diamicton clasts, interpreted as dump, delivered to the area by icebergs or floes from the ice-front in the Wash that deposited the Hunstanton Till. The lake is therefore considered a result of impounding by the Late Devensian ice advance on the east coast. A small number of pale varves have a characteristic structure indicating increased calcite deposition in the summer. They are interpreted as a result of cooler summers with reduced gelifluction from the surrounding Jurassic (Ampthill) Clay. Such gelifluction introduced a mudflow into the varved sequence at the southern end of the section. Pollen analysis confirms the derivation of the clays from the surrounding Ampthill Clay. The varved clays are succeeded by fluviatile sediments related to a delta building into the lake from the north. The delta sediments show periodic influx of sand into the lake interrupted by quiet periods with the development of Chara meadows. A thin spread of fluviatile gravels succeed the delta sediments, indicating the development of a braided river plain as the lake drained on the melting of the Late Devensian ice. This was followed by permafrost development, with the formation of thin thermal contraction cracks and coversand deposition. Later, degradation of the permafrost was associated with the formation of diapirs and a solifluction mantle, and incision of the fluviatile and lacustrine sediments took place. Flandrian peat and marl later filled the valley so formed. A radiocarbon date of 18310 yr BP from Salix leaves in a drift mud at the top of channel sands preceding lake sediment, in a neighbouring section, confirms the relation of the lake to the Late Devensian ice advance. The significance of the Late Devensian sediments at Somersham lies in the information they give on the timing and variety of processes related to drainage and ice movement in the period before, during and after the ice advance to the Wash. A period of low deposition rate in the lake was followed by rapid delta sedimentation and lake drainage, with implications for climatic change.     

Late Devensian and Flandrian palaeoenvironmental changes on the Scottish continental shelf west of the Outer Hebrides

Examination of two radiocarbon-dated vibrocores taken from south of St Kilda at a water depth of about 155 m, a short distance within the maximum position of the Late Devensian (Dimlington Stadial) ice sheet, suggests that the St Kilda Basin became free of glacier ice after 15250 yr BP. Sedimentation in a shallow, low energy, high arctic, muddy environment continued until after 13500 yr BP. There followed a higher energy temperate episode during which water depths were roughly about 40 m: this is correlated with the latter part of the Windermere Interstadial and with the warmer interval known in shallow Scottish seas about or a little before 11 000 yr BP. The Loch Lomond (Younger Dryas) Stadial is marked in the vibrocores by the return of muddy sediments and a cold-water fauna. Relatively shallow water conditions seem to have persisted into the earliest Flandrian, when the water depth was still roughly 60 m, corresponding to a sea-level in the area 90–100 m below present. It is suggested that pack ice was widespread in the northeast Atlantic before the Windermere Interstadial and also during the Loch Lomond Stadial, when it transported shards of Icelandic volcanic ash into the St Kilda basin. Estimates of sea-surface temperature for the last part of the Windermere Interstadial are close to those derived from the deep-sea record for the same period.     

The vertical dimensions of Late Devensian glaciation on the mountains of Harris and southeast Lewis,Outer Hebrides,Scotland

On North Harris and southeast Lewis a weathering limit separates glacially-moulded bedrock on low ground from frost-shattered bedrock and blockfields on high plateaux. Analysis of the depths of horizontal stress-release joints demonstrates significant contrasts in bedrock weathering above and below this boundary, and the survival of gibbsite only in soils above the weathering limit indicates that it represents the upper limit of Late Devensian glacial erosion. The weathering limit declines regularly in altitude on either side of the former ice shed, and is therefore interpreted as a periglacial trimline defining the upper limit of a locally-nourished ice mass at its maximum extent, rather than a former thermal boundary between protective cold-based and erosive warm-based ice. Calculated basal shear stress values are consistent with this interpretation. The configuration of the trimline indicates that at the last glacial maximum the area supported an ice cap that achieved a maximum altitude of ca. 700 m above present sea level and declined in altitude to the west-northwest and east-southeast at an average gradient of ca. 20 m km^?1. Extrapolation of the dimensions of this ice cap suggests that it terminated ca. 7–10 km west of the present coast of Harris, and was confluent with mainland ice a short distance east of the present coastline.     

四川龙门山地区中泥盆统金宝石组混合沉积特征

四川龙门山地区是中国泥盆系出露较好、研究程度较高的地区。中泥盆统金宝石组发育由碎屑岩、碳酸盐岩、混积岩组成的混积沉积。本研究以平武县平驿铺剖面和北川县甘溪剖面为切入点,基于实测资料和薄片观察对金宝石组沉积相开展详细研究,认为龙门山地区中泥盆统金宝石组发育河流、碎屑滨岸、陆棚和碳酸盐岩缓坡4种沉积相,沉积演化经历了2个沉积旋回。金宝石组以相混合和原地混合2种方式形成混合沉积。相对海平面的变化、陆源碎屑的供应、碳酸盐生产速率和古气候是引起相混合的主要控制因素,波浪和风暴浪则是引起陆源碎屑和碳酸盐组分混合沉积的主要作用方式。对金宝石组沉积序列、沉积特征及沉积演化过程的研究,有利于增进对龙门山地区泥盆系沉积古环境的认识。     

大凌河河口地区中更新世晚期以来沉积环境演化

大凌河河口地区LZK06孔40m以浅岩心的沉积学、古生物学和年代学等综合研究以及该地区LZK02-04钻孔资料,揭示了研究区中更新世晚期以来经历了两次海侵-海退旋回,依次形成了中更新世晚期湖相/河流相→晚更新世海相-湖相/河流相→全新世海相-河流相地层。全新世早中期由于物源供给很少,研究区处于长达约10ka的饥饿滞留相沉积环境,平均沉积速率仅约0.02～0.05cm/a。全新世晚期约1500a cal BP以来,由于人类活动导致水土流失,河流输砂量增加,研究区开始了快速加积过程,平均沉积速率约0.9～1.2cm/a,下辽河平原被快速充填,开始成陆。与全球海面变化时空分布特征的对比,推断辽东湾的第II海相层发育于MIS 5-MIS 3早期,第I海相层发育于MIS 1阶段高海面时期。晚更新世以来频繁的海面升降是辽东湾泥质海岸带地层和环境演化的主要控制因素。     

Glacial deposits at the Boyne Bay Limestone Quarry,Portsoy, and their place in the late Pleistocene history of northeast Scotland

The glacial deposits at the Boyne Bay Limestone Quarry near Portsoy, a key Quaternary Site of Special Scientific Interest, comprise (i) a sandy, partly weathered diamicton (Craig of Boyne Till Formation, CBTF) resting on decomposed bedrock, (ii) a central, variably glaciotectonised assemblage of dark clay, diamicton and sand, with rafts of sand and weathered diamicton (Whitehills Glacigenic Formation, WGF), and (iii) an upper dark sandy diamicton (Old Hythe Till Formation, OHTF). The CBTF was probably derived from the west or southwest, and the WGF from seawards. Structures within the OHTF conform to deposition by east‐ or southeast‐moving ice from the Moray Firth, but some erratics indicate derivation from the south. The CBTF is believed to pre‐date the last (lpswichian) interglacial, but the WGF and OHTF both post‐date the early Middle Devensian, and are probably of Late Devensian age. It is proposed that the OHTF was deposited by ice from inland which was directed eastwards near the coast by a vigorous glacier in the Moray Firth, and that the complex, Late Devensian glacial history of the south coast of the Moray Firth as a whole is the result of the interplay of these two contemporary ice‐masses. British Geological Survey. © NERC 2000.     

Climatic and sea‐level control of Jurassic (Pliensbachian) clay mineral sedimentation in the Cardigan Bay Basin,Llanbedr (Mochras Farm) borehole,Wales

Early Jurassic climate is characterized by alternating cold and warm periods highlighted by studies based notably on oxygen isotopes measured on belemnite guards and other marine invertebrate shells. These climatic changes include changes in the hydrological cycle, and consequently weathering and runoff conditions. In order to clarify the erosion and weathering conditions during the Pliensbachian, this study determined the mineralogical composition of the clay fraction of 132 samples taken from the entire stage drilled in the Llanbedr (Mochras Farm) borehole (Cardigan Bay Basin). The clay mineral assemblages are composed of various proportions of chlorite, illite, illite/smectite mixed‐layers (R1 I–S), smectite and kaolinite, with possibly occasional traces of berthierine. The occurrence of abundant smectite indicates that the maximum burial temperature never exceeded 70°C. Consequently, clay minerals are considered mainly detrital, and their fluctuations likely reflect environmental changes. The variations in the proportions of smectite and kaolinite are opposite to each other. Kaolinite is particularly abundant at the base of the jamesoni Zone, in part coinciding with the δ¹³C negative excursion corresponding to the Sinemurian/Pliensbachian Boundary Event, and through the davoei Zone, whilst smectite is abundant in the upper part of jamesoni and base of ibex zones and through the subnodosus/gibbosus subzones of the margaritatus Zone. The kaolinite‐rich intervals reflect an intensification of hydrolysis and an acceleration of the hydrological cycle, while the smectite‐rich intervals indicate a more arid climate. The spinatum Zone is characterized by a distinct clay assemblage with abundant primary minerals, R1 I–S, kaolinite reworked from previously deposited sediments or from Palaeozoic rocks, and probably berthierine originating from contemporaneous ironstone‐generating environments of shallower waters. This mineralogical change by the end of the Pliensbachian likely reflects a transition from a dominant chemical weathering to a deeper physical erosion of the continent, probably related to a significant sea‐level fall consistent with a glacio‐eustatic origin.     

柴西红沟子地区晚新生代沉积特征及其对阿尔金山隆升的约束

柴达木盆地是青藏高原东北缘的一个山间盆地,发育了巨厚的中-新生代地层,详细记录了盆地及周缘山地的构造活动历史。本文通过对柴达木盆地西北部厚约1040m并具有精确古地磁年代控制的红沟子剖面（包括下油砂山组、上油砂山组、狮子沟组和七个泉组）开展精细沉积学研究,包括岩性特征与沉积相、砾岩与砂岩含量变化、剖面沉积速率变化特征以及沉积区物源分析等,结果表明：1）红沟子剖面晚新生代沉积相经历了下油砂山组（>17.0Ma） 的冲积扇或扇三角洲平原相到上油砂山组（17.0~9.8Ma）扇三角洲前缘-半深湖-扇三角洲前缘相,再到狮子沟组（9.8~5.0Ma）扇三角洲前缘相,最后转为七个泉组（16.5Ma、9.8Ma以及16.5~5.0Ma）沉积物可能主要来自北部的阿尔金山地区。基于上述认识,将红沟子剖面晚新生代沉积划分为5个演化阶段：1）>16.5Ma 主要以粗颗粒砾岩为主的冲-洪积相沉积;2）16.5~9.8Ma 沉积环境主要为半深湖或前扇三角洲,以泥岩或泥灰岩等细颗粒为主,沉积速率较低;3）9.80~8.53Ma 沉积环境为扇三角洲前缘,岩性变粗且有大套砾岩堆积,沉积速率达到剖面最高值,并在9.8Ma存在不整合面;4）8.53~7.48Ma沉积环境基本与上一阶段类似,砾岩含量减少,砂岩沉积相对增加,沉积速率呈现低值特征;5）7.48~5.00Ma 主要是扇三角洲前缘沉积环境,砂岩含量较高,沉积速率较高。因此,进而分析指出构造活动是影响研究区沉积特征演化的主要因素,并建立了研究区及周缘新生代构造与沉积特征演化模式图。综合对比前人资料,发现红沟子剖面沉积特征在9.8Ma的变化,特别是沉积速率的陡增在阿尔金山具有普遍性,与前人不同方法捕获的晚新生代阿尔金山乃至整个高原东北部地区的构造隆升时间基本一致,认为红沟子剖面沉积特征在9.8Ma的突变可能是对阿尔金山乃至青藏高原东北缘约10Ma一次大范围隆升事件的响应。     

Geological interpretation of the Cootamundra gravity high,New South Wales

An intense Bouguer anomaly ‘high’ of about 30 milligals amplitude has been delineated to the east of Cootamundra, New South Wales. It is correlated with a north‐trending belt of basic metamorphic rocks of probable Upper Silurian age. The subsurface shape of the belt is deduced by qualitative and quantitative analytical techniques applied to the gravity data; it is inferred that the boundary on the western side is near‐vertical, while that on the eastern side is believed to have been overthrust by the Middle Devonian Young Granite. It appears also that there are no horizontal density variations below a depth of 6–7 km, implying that the base of the Young Granite lies at about this depth.