Measurement and calibration of weathering using the schmidt hammer,on wave washed moraines on the upper norrland coast,Sweden

The Schmidt hammer has for some years been used to measure the hardness of different rock surfaces and to date relatively boulders in moraine deposits. In this paper applications on isostatically raised boulder-beaches and rocky shores are described. The research area is the northern Swedish Bothnian coast where present isostatic uplift is between 0.8-1.0 cm year^?1. Elevations above sea-level can be converted to a timescale. Rebound values (R) of the Schmidt hammer are correlated with the altitude and the degree of rock weathering can be estimated for each site. Eight sites with boulder-beaches and nine sites with rocky shores have been analysed. For boulder-beaches correlation-coefficients of 0.82-0.97 for weathering values (R) and the elevations above sea-level were obtained. For the rocky shores these values were calculated to 0.75-0.97. This method has applications in both geomorphology and archaeology. For example, a deep layer of weathered dolerite in the Nordingrå region, which previously has been regarded as a post-Weichselian formation, can be shown to be of pre-Weichselian origin. Several archaeological applications are also mentioned in the paper.