Early Middle Pleistocene drainage in southern central England

2014 ◽  
Vol 93 (4) ◽  
pp. 135-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.K. Belshaw ◽  
P.L. Gibbard ◽  
J.B. Murton ◽  
D.K. Murton
Keyword(s):  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Left Bank ◽  
The South ◽  
East Anglia ◽  
Glacial Sediments ◽  
The North ◽  
Drainage Line ◽  
Southern Central ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Late Middle Pleistocene

AbstractThe fluvial sequences of the Milton and the Letchworth formations in the south Midlands of England and neighbouring regions represent at least two pre-existing rivers, the Milton and Brigstock streams, underlying Middle Pleistocene glacial sediments. The Milton Formation includes sand sourced from the Midlands bedrock. This implies that both streams were aligned in a northwest to southeast direction. This direction parallels the contemporaneous courses of the rivers Thames and Trent, the former turning towards the east and northeast to enter the North Sea. Their alignments indicate that the Milton and Letchworth streams formed left-bank tributaries of the Thames, joining the river in Hertfordshire and Essex, as illustrated in the article. This reconstruction has important implications for the interpretation of the proto-Soar river of the south Midlands, represented by the Baginton Formation. Although originally thought to represent a late Middle Pleistocene line, this southwest to northeast aligned system was reinterpreted as the headwaters of a pre-Anglian ‘Bytham river’, a1ligned towards East Anglia. However, recent work has shown that this river could not have existed in the pre-Anglian since there is no link between the Midlands and East Anglian spreads. Recent re-recognition that the Baginton Formation deposits do represent a later, post-Anglian drainage line is reinforced by the identification of the Milton and Letchworth streams, whose catchments occupied the area later drained by the proto-Soar. Overall, the main drainage alignment in southern England during the pre-Anglian period was dominated by northwest–southeast-draining consequent rivers adjusted to the regional geological dip. After widespread drainage disruption caused by the Anglian glaciation, northeast–southwest-orientated subsequent streams eroded frost-susceptible clay bedrock under periglacial and permafrost conditions, and beheaded the courses of some of the older consequent streams.

scholarly journals Quaternary River Diversions in the London Basin and the Eastern English Channel

2007 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. R. Bridgland ◽  
P. L. Gibbard
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
North Coast ◽  
English Channel ◽  
East Anglia ◽  
The North ◽  
Course Changes ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
The Last Glacial

ABSTRACT The principal river of the London basin, the Thames, has experienced a number of course changes during the Quaternary. Some, at least, of these are known to result directly from glaciation. In the early Quaternary the river flowed to the north of London across East Anglia to the north coast of Norfolk. By the early Middle Pleistocene it had changed its course to flow eastwards near the Suffolk - Essex border into the southern North Sea. The Thames valley to the north of London was blocked by ice during the Anglian/Elsterian glaciation, causing a series of glacial lakes to form. Overflow of these lakes brought the river into its modern valley through London. It is thought that this valley already existed by the Anglian in the form of a tributary of the north-flowing River Medway, which joined the old Thames valley near Clacton. Also during the Anglian/Elsterian glaciation. British and continental ice masses are thought to have joined in the northern part of the North Sea basin, causing a large lake to form between the east coast of England and the Netherlands. It is widely believed that the overflow from this lake caused the first breach in the Weald-Artois Ridge, bringing about the formation of the Strait of Dover. Prior to the glaciation the Thames, in common with rivers from the continent (including the Rhine and Meuse), flowed into the North Sea Basin. It seems that, after the lake overflow, these rivers together drained southwards into the English Channel. Whether this southern drainage route was adopted during all later periods of low sea level remains to be determined, but it seems certain that this was the case during the last glacial.

scholarly journals VÝZNAM VALOUNOVÝCH ANALÝZ LEDOVCOVÝCH SEDIMENTŮ PRO PALEOGEOGRAFICKÉ REKONSTRUKCE PLEISTOCENNÍHO KONTINENTÁLNÍHO ZALEDNĚNÍ JESENICKA

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Hanáček
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
The South ◽  
Glacial Sediments ◽  
The North ◽  
Depositional System ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Mountain Part ◽  
Continental Glaciation

Sediments of Middle Pleistocene continental glaciation at the northern foothill of Rychleby Mts. and Zlaté Hory Highland contain clasts of local to Nordic provenance. Local clasts originating from crystalline units of the above-mentioned mountains prevail. These clasts have palaeogeographical importance for a local reconstruction of ice sheet advance directions. General advance direction from NW to SE has been reconstructed basing on local clasts in earlier studies (mainly Gába 1981a, b; Gába – Pek 1999). This interpretation has been based on the fact that the shares of clasts of rocks cropping primarily in NW part of the Rychleby Mts. decrease towards the SE. New, in this contribution presented, interpretation reconstructs the ice sheet advance generally from the North to the South, with variations conditioned by local landscape. Glacial sediments have at each site in the NW–SE direction petrological composition, which corresponds to the lithology of a mountain part south of the site of concern. Gierałtow orthogneiss clasts predominate in glacial deposits of the NW part of the main ridge forefield of Rychleby Mts. The share of amphibolites rises significantly in the forefield of the central part of the Rychleby Mts. main ridge. Feldspar and muscovite quartzites dominate in the area of Sokol Ridge and Zlaté Hory Highlands. The new interpretation presumes the colluvial, alluvial and fluvial transport of the debris towards the northern and north-eastern mountain forefi eld before the ice sheet advance. Ice sheet advancing from the North eroded and transported this debris towards the South. Preglacial sediments corresponded petrologically to the mountain parts, from which they originated. Thus, glacial sediments have petrological composition, which corresponds to the lithology of those mountain parts, which lies south of the sediment occurrence. Part of the debris has been transported by Nisa Kłodzka River from the West towards the East already before the glaciation.The following pattern could be found in the petrological composition of the glacial sediments gravel fraction. Sediments with monotonous composition of local clasts contain low shares of Nordic and Poland clasts (~2–4 %). On the contrary, sediments with polymict composition of local clasts contain relatively high shares of Nordic and Poland clasts (up to 27 %). Monotonous and distant provenance poor sediments originated at places, where the source preglacial deposits must have been petrologically monotonous considering the lithology of source areas. Concurrently, morphologically conditioned preglacial accumulation of vast lithologically monotonous deposits took place at some places (proximal parts of mountain ridges and saddles foothill). Rather polymict and distant provenance clast rich sediments originated during the later phase of ice sheet decay. Debris from the whole ice sheet body, not only from the glacier base or its front, released to the depositional system at that time. Sites with these sediments are located beyond the mountain foothill, where mixing of debris originating from alluvial fans or rivers flowing form the mountain range took place. Petrologically by far more monotonous sediments have been deposited closer to the mountain foothill. Quartz clasts are mostly of local origin and have together with other clasts been part of preglacial sediments. Part of quartz clasts has been reworked from fluvial deposits of present Poland or they might originate from the Nordic areas.

Timing of magmatism, foreland basin development, metamorphism and inversion in the Anglo-Brabant fold belt

1997 ◽  
Vol 134 (5) ◽  
pp. 607-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. VAN GROOTEL ◽  
J. VERNIERS ◽  
B. GEERKENS ◽  
D. LADURON ◽  
M. VERHAEREN ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Subduction Zones ◽  
Foreland Basin ◽  
Fold Belt ◽  
East Anglia ◽  
Basin Inversion ◽  
Tectonic Model ◽  
The North ◽  
Basin Development ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
And Inversion

New data implying crustal activation of Eastern Avalonia along the Anglo-Brabant fold belt are presented. Late Ordovician subduction-related magmatism in East Anglia and the Brabant Massif, coupled with accelerated subsidence in the Anglia Basin and in the Brabant Massif during Silurian time, indicate a foreland basin development. Final collision resulted in folding, cleavage development and thrusting during the mid-Lochkovian to mid-Eifelian. In the southeast of the Anglo-Brabant fold belt, Acadian deformation produced basin inversion and the regional antiformal structure of the Brabant Massif. The uplift, inferred from the sedimentology, petrography and reworked palynomorphs in the Lower Devonian of the Dinant Synclinorium is confirmed by illite crystallinity studies. The tectonic model discussed implies the presence of two subduction zones in the eastern part of Eastern Avalonia, one along the Anglo-Brabant fold belt and another under the North Sea in the prolongation of the North German–Polish Caledonides.

1. Some Account of the Magnetic Observatory at Makerstoun, and of the Observations made there.

1851 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 10-12
Author(s):  
J. A. Broun
Keyword(s):  
Astronomical Observatory ◽  
Magnetic Observatory ◽  
Left Bank ◽  
The South ◽  
The North

The observatory is situated on a rising ground forming the left bank of the Tweed, and is at a distance of about fifty yards from the Astronomical Observatory. It is built of wood; copper nails were used, and all iron carefully excluded from the building.The plan of the observatory is rectangular, 40 feet long by 20 broad: It is divided into one large room to the north, 40 feet by 12, and two ante-rooms to the south, with the lobby and entrance doors between.

scholarly journals Looking beyond stratification: a model-based analysis of the biological drivers of oxygen deficiency in the North Sea

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 2511-2535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Große ◽  
Naomi Greenwood ◽  
Markus Kreus ◽  
Hermann-Josef Lenhart ◽  
Detlev Machoczek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Oxygen Deficiency ◽  
Low Oxygen ◽  
The North ◽  
Oxygen Conditions ◽  
Southern Central ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Central North Sea ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Oxygen Dynamics

Abstract. Low oxygen conditions, often referred to as oxygen deficiency, occur regularly in the North Sea, a temperate European shelf sea. Stratification represents a major process regulating the seasonal dynamics of bottom oxygen, yet, lowest oxygen conditions in the North Sea do not occur in the regions of strongest stratification. This suggests that stratification is an important prerequisite for oxygen deficiency, but that the complex interaction between hydrodynamics and the biological processes drives its evolution. In this study we use the ecosystem model HAMSOM-ECOHAM to provide a general characterisation of the different zones of the North Sea with respect to oxygen, and to quantify the impact of the different physical and biological factors driving the oxygen dynamics inside the entire sub-thermocline volume and directly above the bottom. With respect to oxygen dynamics, the North Sea can be subdivided into three different zones: (1) a highly productive, non-stratified coastal zone, (2) a productive, seasonally stratified zone with a small sub-thermocline volume, and (3) a productive, seasonally stratified zone with a large sub-thermocline volume. Type 2 reveals the highest susceptibility to oxygen deficiency due to sufficiently long stratification periods (>  60 days) accompanied by high surface productivity resulting in high biological consumption, and a small sub-thermocline volume implying both a small initial oxygen inventory and a strong influence of the biological consumption on the oxygen concentration. Year-to-year variations in the oxygen conditions are caused by variations in primary production, while spatial differences can be attributed to differences in stratification and water depth. The large sub-thermocline volume dominates the oxygen dynamics in the northern central and northern North Sea and makes this region insusceptible to oxygen deficiency. In the southern North Sea the strong tidal mixing inhibits the development of seasonal stratification which protects this area from the evolution of low oxygen conditions. In contrast, the southern central North Sea is highly susceptible to low oxygen conditions (type 2). We furthermore show that benthic diagenetic processes represent the main oxygen consumers in the bottom layer, consistently accounting for more than 50 % of the overall consumption. Thus, primary production followed by remineralisation of organic matter under stratified conditions constitutes the main driver for the evolution of oxygen deficiency in the southern central North Sea. By providing these valuable insights, we show that ecosystem models can be a useful tool for the interpretation of observations and the estimation of the impact of anthropogenic drivers on the North Sea oxygen conditions.

Modelling water column processes in the North Sea

1993 ◽  
Vol 343 (1669) ◽  
pp. 509-517 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Water Column ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Process Water ◽  
Phytoplankton Dynamics ◽  
Annual Cycles ◽  
The North ◽  
Field Investigations ◽  
Southern Central ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Northern North Sea

In the North Sea advective transports are not negligible. Nevertheless, physical properties like sea surface temperature (SST) can be hindcasted with sufficient precision by vertical process water column models. Annual cycles of SST in the southern, central, and northern North Sea can be simulated using physical upper layer models with relatively small RMS errors. For the Fladenground Experiment (FLEX’76) in the northern North Sea the RMS error is less 0.3 °C for the 2 months of the experiment. This justifies the initial use, at least, of vertical process water column models in simulations for investigating transfer processes in the planktonic ecosystem. Experiments have shown that the simulated entrainment velocities at the bottom of the mixed layer during summer are critically dependent on the resolution of the forcing variables. The effects of this resolution on the annual phytoplankton dynamics will be discussed. Phytoplankton dynamics are strongly influenced by those of the zooplankton, and vice versa. Several field investigations have shown that, seemingly, phytoplankton cannot sustain the observed stock of zooplankton in the northern North Sea: there exists a gap between the abundance of phytoplankton and the need for it to maintain the zooplankton. Revisiting FLEX’76, the simulations with water column models of increasing complexity concerning detritus suggest that pelagic detritus can fill the gap in food availability for the zooplankton. If it is assumed that the zooplankton feeds also on detritus, the zooplankton experiences no food shortage.

scholarly journals Tunny Investigations made in the North Sea on Col. E. T. Peel's Yacht, “St. George,” Summer, 1933. Part I. Biometric Data

1934 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 503-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. S. Russell
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
South Coast ◽  
Body Proportions ◽  
The South ◽  
Biometric Data ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Sea Fish ◽  
Made In

1. Details are given of the types of hooks lost in tunny in the North Sea in the summer of 1933.2. Data are given on the measurements made on thirty-two large migrating fish caught in the North Sea in August and September, 1933.3. In certain body proportions the tunny measured differ from those in the G4 Group (200 to 260 cm. in length) given by Heldt for fish from Tunis and by Frade for fish from Algarve on the south coast of Portugal, while in some characters they resemble the Tunis fish and in others the Algarve fish, but all the North Sea fish were between 232 and 271 cm. in length.4. It was found that there was a tendency for fish with short second dorsal fins to have short first dorsal, anal, and caudal fins, and for those with long second dorsals to have these other three fins long.5. Measurements were made to supply data on the condition of the fish.

scholarly journals III.—On the Structure of the Valleys of the Blackwater and the Crough, and of the East Essex Gravel, and on the Relation of this Gravel to the Denudation of the Weald

1866 ◽  
Vol 3 (26) ◽  
pp. 348-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Searles V. Wood
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Glacial Period ◽  
The South ◽  
Northern Boundary ◽  
The North ◽  
Complete Order ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Boulder Clay ◽  
London Clay

In a paper in this Magazine, upon the structure of the Thames Valley, I endeavoured to show that instead of being, as had been asserted, a valley of similar structure to those of the Somme and Seine, and containing deposits of nearly similar order and age, the valley in which the Thames gravel was deposited possessed no outlet to what is now the North Sea, being divided from it by a range of high gravelless country; and that, in lieu of such an outlet, the valley opened, in more than one part, over what is now the bare Chalk country forming the northern boundary of the Valley of the Weald. I also endeavoured to show that all the deposits of the Thames Valley, except the peat and marsh clay, belonged to several successive stages, marking the gradual denudation of the Boulderclay, the lower Bagshot, the London Clay, and the subjacent Tertiaries, which had, at the end of the Glacial period, spread over the south-east of England in a complete order of succession: the sea into which this valley discharged occupying, what is now, the Chalk country of the Counties of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Hampshire, inclusive of the interval subsequently scooped out to form the Valley of the Weald: so that, not only was the latter valley newer than that of the Thames, and of the most recent of the Thames Valley deposits, except the peat and marsh clay, but that these deposits in themselves marked a long descent in time from that comparatively remote period of the Boulder-clay.

Cold Induced Abnormal Catches of Sole

1998 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 345-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.W. Horwood ◽  
R.S. Millner
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
The South ◽  
Total Allowable Catch ◽  
The North ◽  
Solea Solea ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Made In

Large catches of sole (Solea solea) were made in early 1996 from the south-western North Sea. Sole suffer physiological damage in waters below 3–4 C. In February 1996 cold water of 3–4 C unusually extended from the Continental coast onto the Dogger Bank. It is likely that the increased catches were due to the consequential distribution and behaviour of the sole, making them more susceptible to capture.Exceptionally large catches of mature sole (Solea solea (L.)) were made in February 1996 by Lowestoft fishermen from the south-western North Sea. Surprisingly this was not welcome. The UK allocation of the North Sea sole is -4 % of the EU Total Allowable Catch (TAC), and fishermen are restricted nationally, and by the fishing companies, to a tightly managed ration. The Lowestoft Journal (8 March 1996) reported the suspension of a local fishing skipper for not throwing back 5000 kg of sole caught in the Silver Pits. We will show that the abnormal catches were due to exceptionally cold waters.Sole in the North Sea are at the northern extremity of their range, with sole seldom living in waters below 5°C (Horwood, 1993). In fact, North Sea sole were successfully introduced into Lake Quarun, Egypt, where they lived in temperatures in excess of 30°C (El-Zarka, 1965). Young sole migrate from their shallow inshore nursery grounds, such as the Waddensea, as winter approaches (Creutzberg & Fonds, 1971).

scholarly journals Stratigraphy of Maastrichtian Foraminiferida from the United Kingdom; the Maastrichtian of Norfolk

2003 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Hart ◽  
T. Swiecicki
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Flood Basalts ◽  
Glacial Sediments ◽  
The North ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Atlantic Margin

AbstractOnshore Maastrichtian strata in the United Kingdom are limited to a few small, isolated blocks of chalk floating within glacial sediments on the Norfolk coast. Isolated outcrops of Campanian and Maastrichtian chalks used to be available around Norwich but the majority of these exposures are now badly degraded. Offshore, in the North Sea Basin, there are complete chalk successions that range throughout the Upper Cretaceous and Lower Cenozoic. There is a limited succession of Maastrichtian chalks exposed on the north coast of Northern Ireland below the Cenozoic flood basalts. In the Western Approaches Basin, Maastrichtian and Danian chalks are known from exploration wells and core samples. West of the United Kingdom a number of DSDP/ODP boreholes have penetrated the Upper Cretaceous succession.Beginning in the Cenomanian, in southeast England, the whole of the Upper Cretaceous is within the chalk facies, possibly one of the longest intervals of relatively stable environment in the geological record. The Foraminiferida of the chalk have been studied for more than a hundred years and therefore the fauna is exceptionally well known and fully documented. Fifty years ago, the benthonic Foraminiferida were identified as having the potential to provide a viable zonation of the chalk facies and we now have precise, cross-basinal correlation using these taxa.The planktonic fauna is restricted by both palaeolatitude and water depth. The latter appears to be the most influential as the faunas from onshore are more limited than those recorded from the deeper waters of the North Sea Basin and the Atlantic Margin. Even with this restricted fauna, however, it is still possible to develop a general correlation with the standard Tethyan zonation based on planktonic taxa.

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