The geology of the Amstel river in Amsterdam (Netherlands): Man versus nature

2015 ◽  
Vol 94 (4) ◽  
pp. 361-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. de Gans
Keyword(s):  
Cross Sections ◽  
Coastal Plain ◽  
Storm Surges ◽  
Sediment Supply ◽  
Peat Layer ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Borehole Data ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Natural Channel

AbstractThe Amstel river is located in the peat-covered coastal plain of the Netherlands and gives Amsterdam its name (Amstel dam). It is a small secondary branch of the repeatedly bifurcating Rhine delta system. Historically, the Amstel debouched into the peat-fringed former Oer-IJ estuary, which was connected to the North Sea, but after the closure of this inlet the estuary was transformed into an inland sea (IJ) due to erosion of the adjacent peat. The Amstel river was active between 3000 BP and 1122 AD after which time the supply water from the Rhine was stopped due to the construction of a dam far upstream near Wijk bij Duurstede. On the basis of borehole data from various sources, four cross-sections were constructed in the Amstel branch to study the unknown lithology and lithostratigraphy of the Amstel sediments in the Amsterdam area. The deposits show the Amstel was a low-energy river which carried mainly clay. The cross-sections reveal that the Amstel in its downstream part was flanked by two lithologically identical layers of overbank clay, intercalated by a peat layer. The lowermost overbank clay was deposited from 3000 BP to about 1000 AD. The intercalated peat layer is estimated to have developed between the 11th and 12th centuries AD, indicating a decreased sediment supply in the Amstel, and rise of water level in the downstream river caused by Zuiderzee influences such as storms and tide. The uppermost overbank clay was deposited during major storm surges such as those documented in 1164 and 1170 AD, and was derived from the brackish Zuiderzee; it has been traced upstream along the Amstel for over 10 km. Near the mouth of the Amstel channel in the Oer-IJ estuary its bottom has been scoured by estuarine processes to a lower level. On the basis of archaeological and geological data it is argued that the Amstel channel of medieval Amsterdam had a water depth of about 6 m before the construction of a dam in the 13th century. Soil scientists, historical geographers and historians have argued that the Amstel once consisted of two separate rivers: a northern Oer-IJ connected channel draining from the Amsterdam Stopera to the north, and a southern peat draining channel draining from the Amsterdam-Watergraafsmeer to the south. The relatively straight stretch of the present-day Amstel now positioned within the urban area has been hypothesised to be man-made between the 11th and 13th centuries AD. In this paper, on the basis of geological arguments such as channel depths, overbank clays, peat composition and other characteristics, it is concluded that the Amstel had a natural channel in the Amsterdam area.

The Environmental Effects of Flood Control in the Yare Basin

1984 ◽  
Vol 16 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 477-484
Author(s):  
H L Wakeling
Keyword(s):  
Flood Control ◽  
Storm Surges ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Grazing Land ◽  
Flood Prevention ◽  
Scenic Beauty ◽  
The North ◽  
Economic Justification ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Improved Pasture

The paper reviews various methods of flood control in the lower Yare Basin which has been subject to serious flooding caused by storm surges in the North Sea and by fluvial floods. This area is known as the Broads and is an area of scenic beauty, includes many sites of scientific interest and is a popular tourist area. The effects of the different flood control options on the environment are discussed. The primary economic justification for flood prevention was found to arise from the conversion of poor quality marsh grazing land to arable or improved pasture once the risk of saline flooding was removed. The consequences of this change in land use on the flora and fauna have aroused much concern among environmentalists.

scholarly journals Hydrogeological characterisation of a glacially affected barrier island – the North Frisian Island of Föhr

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 5085-5119 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Burschil ◽  
W. Scheer ◽  
R. Kirsch ◽  
H. Wiederhold
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Underground Structure ◽  
Empirical Relation ◽  
Geophysical Methods ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Hydrogeological Model ◽  
Borehole Data ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
D Model

Abstract. We present the application of geophysical investigations to characterise and improve the geological/hydrogeological model through the estimation of petrophysical parameters for groundwater modelling. Seismic reflection and airborne electromagnetic surveys in combination with borehole information enhance the 3-D geological model and allow a petrophysical interpretation of the subsurface. The North Sea Island of Föhr has a very complex underground structure what was already known from boreholes. The local waterworks use a freshwater body embedded in saline groundwater. Several glaciations disordered the Youngest Tertiary and Quaternary sediments by glaciotectonic thrust-faulting as well as incision and refill of glacial valleys. Both underground structures have a strong impact on the distribution of freshwater bearing aquifers. An initial hydrogeological model of Föhr was built from borehole data alone and was restricted to the southern part of the island where in the sandy areas of the Geest a large freshwater body was formed. We improved the geological/hydrogeological model by adding data from different geophysical methods, e.g. airborne electromagnetics (EM) for mapping the resistivity of the entire island, seismic reflections for detailed cross sections in the groundwater catchment area, and geophysical borehole logging for calibration of these measurements. An integrated evaluation of the results from the different geophysical methods yields reliable data. To determinate petrophysical parameter about 18 borehole logs, more than 75 m deep, and nearby airborne EM inversion models were analyzed concerning resistivity. We establish an empirical relation between measured resistivity and hydraulic conductivity for the specific area – the North Sea island of Föhr. Five boreholes concerning seismic interval velocities discriminate sand and till. The interpretation of these data was the basis for building the geological/hydrogeological 3-D model. We fitted the relevant model layers to all geophysical and geological data and created a consistent 3-D model. This model is the fundament for groundwater simulations considering forecasted changes in precipitation and sea level rise due to climate change.

Storm surges in the North Sea during the winter 1953-4

1956 ◽  
Vol 235 (1201) ◽  
pp. 260-274 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Storm Surges ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
The North ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Sea Ports ◽  
Phase Angles

Records of sea level for several North Sea ports for the winter of 1953-4 have been in vestigated. They were split into 14-day intervals, and each 14-day record was Fourieranalyzed to determine if any non-astronomical periods were present. There was evidence of some activity between 40 and 50 h period, and a determination of the phase angles at different ports showed that the activity could be due to a disturbance travelling southwards from the north of the North Sea. The disturbance was partly reflected somewhere near the line from Lowestoft to Flushing, so that one part returned past Flushing and Esbjerg towards Bergen while the other part travelled towards Dover, and there was evidence of its existence on the sea-current records taken near St Margaret's Bay. These results were confirmed by subtracting the predicted astronomical tidal levels from the observed values of sea level and cross-correlating the residuals so obtained for each port with those found at Lowestoft. The residuals at Lowestoft and Aberdeen were compared with the meteorological conditions, and it was found that, although they could be attributed to a large extent to conditions within the North Sea, there was an additional effect due to a travelling surge which was of the same order of magnitude at both Lowestoft and Aberdeen and which was closely related to the rate of change with time of the atmospheric pressure difference between Wick and Bergen.

Tectonic influence of Large Igneous Provinces on source-to-sink systems, the case study of Shetland during the Palaeocene - Preliminary results

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas Albanese Valore ◽  
Christian Haug Eide ◽  
Tor Oftedal Sømme
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Sediment Supply ◽  
Dynamic Topography ◽  
Sedimentary Record ◽  
Mantle Dynamics ◽  
Exceptional Preservation ◽  
The North ◽  
Source To Sink ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Forcing Mechanisms

<p>The source-to-sink approach to sedimentology has become an increasingly valuable approach for addressing how external and internal forcing mechanisms are tied together in time and space. Processes that are initiated deep within the lower mantle can eventually propagate and affect shallow crustal sedimentary systems. This is important to predict the presence of reservoirs in areas of little data, and to interpret the sedimentary record in terms of climate and tectonic settings during deposition. To address this issue, we will study the Early Palaeogene succession of the East Shetland Platform in the North Sea, which was deposited during the emplacement of the Icelandic Plume. The plume’s activity is hypothesized to be the cause of a major uplift cycle in the continental source areas, which is coeval to a sharp increase in sedimentation rates recorded in the East Shetland Platform during the Palaeocene. However, this relationship is still in need of accurate constraints derived from data with better spatial and temporal resolution, particularly due to overlapping climatic and tectonic controls, regional-to-local variations in sediment supply systems and overall gaps in the sedimentary record. This correlation can benefit from high-quality 3D seismic data on the platform, especially due to an exceptional preservation of shelf-edge geometries that are absent elsewhere. Using different 3D and 2D seismic surveys, well data and biostratigraphic data from the Shetland Platform and the North Sea, we will quantify sediment volumes supplied through time. The observed sediment volumes will be investigated using models of dynamic topography, plume activity and paleoclimatic data to closely relate supplied volumes to changes in relief, catchment geometries, precipitation and other key forcing parameters. Ultimately, we aim to investigate the relative influence of both tectonics and climate, as both long term (mantle dynamics) and short term (Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum) have been interpreted to play an important role in this system.</p><p> </p>

Large-scale siliciclastic input during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum in the North Sea Basin

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simin Jin ◽  
David Kemp ◽  
David Jolley ◽  
Manuel Vieira ◽  
Chunju Huang
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Isotope ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Climate Warming ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Sediment Supply ◽  
Deep Time ◽  
The North ◽  
Thermal Maximum ◽  
The North Sea

<p>The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, ~56 Ma) was the most marked climate warming event of the Cenozoic, and a potentially useful deep time analogue for understanding environmental responses to anthropogenic carbon emissions and associated warming. The response of sedimentary systems to the large-scale climate changes of the PETM are, however, still uncertain. Here, we present an extremely thick (~140 m) record of the PETM in cores from a well in the North Sea, offshore UK. In this well, a thick Paleocene-Eocene interval is developed owing to uplift of the East Shetland Platform in the late Paleocene. Carbon isotope data through this well, coupled with detailed sedimentological analysis, show that the PETM interval is contemporaneous with >200 sandstone turbidites layers. Mud deposition without turbidites dominated sedimentation below and above the PETM. These observations support previous work from other localities highlighting how climate warming during the PETM likely drove substantial changes in hydrological cycling, erosion and sediment supply. Spectral analysis of turbidite recurrence in the PETM interval suggests that the abundance of turbidites was modulated in part by ~21 kyr astronomical precession climate cycles, further emphasizing a potential climatic control on turbidite sedimentation. In detail, we note a kiloyear-scale time lag between onset of the PETM carbon isotope excursion and the appearance of turbidites in the succession, highlighting a delay between PETM carbon release and warming and the basin-wide response in sediment supply.</p>

scholarly journals An ensemble study of extreme storm surge related water levels in the North Sea in a changing climate

Ocean Science ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Sterl ◽  
H. van den Brink ◽  
H. de Vries ◽  
R. Haarsma ◽  
E. van Meijgaard
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
Storm Surges ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
The North ◽  
Extreme Storm ◽  
The North Sea

Abstract. The height of storm surges is extremely important for a low-lying country like The Netherlands. By law, part of the coastal defence system has to withstand a water level that on average occurs only once every 10 000 years. The question then arises whether and how climate change affects the heights of extreme storm surges. Published research points to only small changes. However, due to the limited amount of data available results are usually limited to relatively frequent extremes like the annual 99%-ile. We here report on results from a 17-member ensemble of North Sea water levels spaning the period 1950–2100. It was created by forcing a surge model of the North Sea with meteorological output from a state-of-the-art global climate model which has been driven by greenhouse gas emissions following the SRES A1b scenario. The large ensemble size enables us to calculate 10 000 year return water levels with a low statistical uncertainty. In the one model used in this study, we find no statistically significant change in the 10 000 year return values of surge heights along the Dutch during the 21st century. Also a higher sea level resulting from global warming does not impact the height of the storm surges. As a side effect of our simulations we also obtain results on the interplay between surge and tide.

scholarly journals FREQUENCIES AND PROBABILITIES OF EXTREME STORM SURGES

1978 ◽  
Vol 1 (16) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Alfred Bohrbuter
Keyword(s):  
Storm Surges ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
High Wind ◽  
Shallow Sea ◽  
The North ◽  
Extreme Storm ◽  
Mean Wind Speed ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Set Up

The North Sea as a very shallow sea with high wind set-up effects is acting highly as extremely sensitive measuring equipment for climatic changes, especially for surge producing weather conditions. The flood disaster in the Netherlands 1953, in Germany 1962, the Adolph-Bermpohl-Orkan (1967), with mean wind speed of 37 ra/sec. over 5 hours, the strong continental storm with high damages in the forests from France till Poland in November 1972, a series of 6 heavy floods in November/ December 1973 and two extreme floods in January 1976 with the highest water levels ever registrated in the German bight are indications for some changes in meteorological conditions. In this paper some hypothetical models shall be introduced which are able to show how extreme storm surge frequencies and probabilities are changing with time.

scholarly journals THE DUTCH PROGRAM OF INVESTIGATIONS ON STORM SURGES IN THE NORTH SEA

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
J. B. Schijf
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Storm Surges ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Wind Effects ◽  
Shallow Sea ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Western Germany ◽  
North Western

The North Sea is a shallow sea and therefore it is very sensitive to wind effects. As a result the water levels along the coasts are, in addition to the tidal oscillations subject to a considerable wind setup and exceptionally severe gales throughout history have been accompanied by inundations of the low-lying regions bordering the North Sea, in particular its southern part. No stretch of coast has suffered more than that belonging to the Netherlands and the adjacent parts of Belgium and North Western Germany. Several factors combine to bestow on us this doubtful privilege.

Study of ISO 19901-3 Building Code Correspondence Factor for Eurocode 3

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Neumann
Keyword(s):  
Cross Sections ◽  
Steel Structures ◽  
Building Code ◽  
Structural Components ◽  
The North ◽  
A Value ◽  
Eurocode 3 ◽  
European Code ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Design Resistance

For topside structures ISO 19901-3 rely on national or regional building codes to derive the resistance of structural components. It is, however, required that the design resistance(s) of the building code is matched to the design resistance(s) of ISO 19902 through the use of a building code correspondence factor Kc. Recently, Kc was proposed in the literature to be taken as 0.95 for the European code for steel structures, Eurocode 3 (EN 1993). The present study does not support this value. Instead a value of 0.86 is derived. This lower value is based on the investigation of a topside project in the North Sea, and intends to cover for the stricter requirements to component resistance in ISO 19902 compared to Eurocode 3 for plastic and compact cross-sections.

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