Nature and palaeoenvironmental significance of a buried soil sequence from Magilligan Foreland, Northern Ireland

Soil horizons delimit three periods of sand deposition and subsequent topographic stability at Magilligan Foreland, Co. Londonderry. All the deposits are composed of texturally and mineralogically similar material. The earliest topography is a beach ridge plain; podzols cap the ridges and peats occur in the inter-ridge depressions, together comprising a buried palaeocatena. The podzols are visually distinct but chemically and mineralogically immature. Peat and podzol genesis probably began between 3,000 and 2,500 years B.P., and were terminated between c . 1,100 years B.P. and c . 600 years B.P. by burial under an extensive layer of aeolian sand. This sand was eroded to a planar surface before developing a sand-pararendzina, which represents a second period of surface stability. The third deposit, a discontinuous dune sand, is presently also developing a sand-pararendzina. Difficulties of using ¹⁴C dates to erect absolute chronologies are discussed.