scholarly journals Evidence of the Storegga Tsunami 8200 BP? An Archaeological Review of Impact After a Large-Scale Marine Event in Mesolithic Northern Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Astrid J. Nyland ◽  
James Walker ◽  
Graeme Warren
Keyword(s):  
Natural Hazards ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
Southern North Sea ◽  
The North ◽  
Western Norway ◽  
The Social

Around 8,200 years ago, the Storegga tsunami hit the coasts of the Norwegian and North Seas. This event is well known from wide ranging geological and palaeobotanical work undertaken over the last 30 years. Outside of attempts at palaeodemographic models, however, exploration of the social impact of the wave on Mesolithic hunter-gatherer societies living on the coasts of west Norway, the north and east British Isles, and around the southern North Sea basin have been less common. It has been widely assumed that the tsunami was a disaster–but what constituted a disaster for the Mesolithic peoples who lived through this event? What can we learn about life after natural hazards by considering the archaeological material from regions with distinct Mesolithic histories? This paper presents a review of evidence of the Storegga tsunami at Mesolithic sites from western Norway, the Northeast UK, and elsewhere around the southern North Sea basin. We consider the ways in which the social impact of the Storegga tsunami has been studied up till now and suggest an alternative way forward.

When the sea become a monster? The social impact of the Storegga tsunami, 8200 BP, on the Mesolithic of northern Europe

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Astrid Nyland ◽  
Graeme Warren ◽  
James Walker
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Submarine Landslide ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Outer Coast

<p>Around 8200 years ago, the Storegga tsunami, caused by a massive submarine landslide off the coast of Central Norway, struck the coasts of west Norway, Scotland and Doggerland. This event is well known from wide ranging geological and palaeobotanical work undertaken over the last 30 years. What has been less explored, however, is the potential social impact that this natural freak event had on the Mesolithic hunter-gatherer societies living on the coasts and shores of the North Sea. What happened in the tsunami’s aftermath? It has been widely assumed to have been a disaster – but was it? What constituted a disaster in the Mesolithic? In the Mesolithic, people were hunter-gatherer-fishers, they lived by, off, and with the sea. Settlement sites in West Norway were concentrated along the outer coast. People lived on the shores of islands and headlands, or along resource rich tidal currents. Eastern Scottish Mesolithic sites are also found on contemporary coasts, while the coasts of central Doggerland have long since become submerged. What happened to groups in these landscapes on the day the sea became a monster and in the years that followed? In this paper, we will outline a newly started project that will investigate the social impact of the tsunami in areas of the North Sea that have distinctive Mesolithic histories. These coastal inhabitants had, for millennia, developed their own traditions to engage with and learn how to exploit and keep safe from the sea. What can we learn about Mesolithic societies by investigating how communities handled the forces of a tsunami? Responses identified in the archaeological material and environmental archives can potentially inform us of social structures, institutions or ways of living that made the existing societies resilient or vulnerable.</p>

Exploration of submerged Mesolithic landscapes around the Brown Bank, southern North Sea

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merle Muru ◽  
Rachel Harding ◽  
Simon Fitch ◽  
Tine Missiaen ◽  
Vince Gaffney
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Ex Situ ◽  
Commercial Fishing ◽  
Peat Layer ◽  
Dry Land ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
Southern North Sea ◽  
The North

<p>During the late glacial and early Holocene, vast areas of dry land stretched from the British Isles to continental Europe over what is now the southern part of the North Sea. Whilst it is known that this landscape was inhabited, little is known about the cultures that lived there and the surrounding environment. This study focuses on the Brown Bank area, between the UK and Dutch coasts, with its significant 25 km long and 10-15 m high ridge on the seabed which has provided many Mesolithic ex-situ finds. However, all of these finds have been recovered serendipitously due to commercial fishing and dredging, and thus the landscape and sedimentary context of these archaeological finds is unclear.<br>The goal of this study is to map the terrestrial features in the Brown Bank area and reconstruct the palaeolandscape and its inundation to determine the potential locations from which this archaeological material derives, and potentially locate Mesolithic settlement sites. The project uses high-resolution parametric echosounder surveys in a dense survey network to record the area and facilitate later targeted dredging and vibro-core sampling.<br>The seismic surveys revealed a pre-marine inundation landscape with fluvial channels eroded into post glacial sediments. A peat layer was located on the top of the banks of the channels where it continues laterally hundreds of metres. Radiocarbon dating of the top part of the peat layer, just below the transgressive deposits gave ages around 10.2-9.9 cal ka BP. Palaeogeographic reconstructions based on the mapped terrestrial features and the available relative sea level change data suggest that the final inundation of the area happened c. 1000 years later. Where dredging was carried out in areas of interest, primarily where the early Holocene surface outcropped onto the seabed, a large number of blocks of peat with pieces of wood and other macrofossils were recovered, suggesting a good potential for preservation of possible archaeological material and possible locations of origin for the serendipitous finds made by fishermen.<br>We conclude that this study provides new insights into the palaeogeography and the timing of the inundation of the Brown Bank area and gives the landscape context to the potential Mesolithic habitation of this part of the southern North Sea.</p>

scholarly journals Protecting the North Sea: Brown Bank

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oceana ◽  
Silvia García ◽  
Helena Álvarez ◽  
Allison L. Perry ◽  
Jorge Blanco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Natura 2000 ◽  
Southern North Sea ◽  
The North ◽  
Priority Species ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Associated Species

Located at the centre of the southern North Sea, Brown Bankridge formed by a series of large-scale sandbanks in Dutch and UK waters. It is a recognised area of ecological interest, due mainly to the high abundance of cetaceans and seabirds in the area. To date, however, Brown Bank has been granted very limited protection. The UK side is protected for a single species (harbour porpoise), within the Southern North Sea MPA. No protection is in place for the Dutch side, although it qualifies for inclusion in the Natura 2000 network due to the high numbers of seabirds that it supports, particularly common guillemot and razorbill. Oceana carried out two research surveys in 2016 and 2017, to gather information about benthic species and communities.In total, 204 taxa were identified. These taxa included nine priority species for conservation, and a range of commercially fished species, including fishes for which Brown Bank provides spawning or nursery habitat. The most noteworthy discovery was the presence of biogenic reefs formed by ross worm (Sabellaria spinulosa), a sedimentary polychaete. These reefs covered a total area of 1023 m2 on the Dutch side of Brown Bank, and hosted a variety of associated species, including various crabs, common dragonet, and lesser spotted dogfish. Such biogenic reefs have nearly disappeared from Dutch waters, and ross worm reefs were previously thought to have been long-extinct in the area.

Offshore Claims and Problems in the North Sea

1965 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 505-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Young
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Geneva Convention ◽  
Legal Principles ◽  
The North ◽  
Legal Problems ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
The Subject ◽  
First Time ◽  
Economic Considerations

The possible presence of very large petroleum and natural gas reserves in the area beneath the North Sea is currently the subject of intense investigation. If confirmed, as seems likely in at least some localities, this occurrence will raise legal problems of considerable interest and complexity. For the North Sea is not merely an oilfield covered by water: for centuries it has been one of the world's major fishery regions and the avenue to and from the world's busiest seaports. Thus all three of the present principal uses of the sea—fishing, navigation, and the exploitation of submarine resources—promise to meet for the first time on a large scale in an area where all are of major importance. The process of reconciling the various interests at stake will provide the first thoroughgoing test of the adequacy and acceptability of the general principles laid down in the 1958 Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf and should add greatly to the practice and precedents available in this developing branch of the law. In the present article an attempt is made to review some of the geographical and economic considerations involved in the North Sea situation, to note some of the technical and legal developments that have already taken place, and to consider these elements in the light of the various interests and legal principles concerned.

scholarly journals The Size of Diatoms II. Further Observations on Rhizosolenia styliformis (Brightwell)

1946 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. S. Wimpenny
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Indicator Species ◽  
Separate Species ◽  
Southern North Sea ◽  
Auxospore Formation ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Antarctic

1. Diameter measurements of Rhizosolenia styliformis from the Antarctic, the subtropical Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and from the North Sea and neighbouring waters have made it appear necessary to set up two varieties, oceanica and semispina, in addition to the type of the species R. styliformis. The type as I describe it has been called var. longispina by Hustedt, but elsewhere it has often been figured as the var. oceanica of this paper. Var. semispina is synonymous with the form represented by Karsten as R. semispina Hensen. It differs from R. semispina as drawn by Hensen and its synonym R. hebetata forma semispina Gran, but is thought likely to be linked by intermediates. If this is so R. hebetata may have to be extended to include and suppress R. styliformis, as var. semispina is linked to the type by intermediates. Var. oceanica has no intermediate forms and, if R. hebetata is to be extended, this variety should be established as a separate species.2. Var. oceanica is absent from the southern North Sea and appears to be an indicator species related to oceanic inflow.3. Auxospore formation was observed for the type in the southern North Sea in 1935 and biometric observations suggest that a period of 3-4 years elapsed between the production of auxospore generations in that area. Outside the southern North Sea for the type, measurements give no indication of auxospore generations occurring at intervals exceeding a year. While auxospore formation has been seen in var. oceanica from the Shetlands area samples of June 1935 and July 1938, this phenomenon has not been observed for var. semispina.

scholarly journals Inferring the location and scale of mixing between habitat areas of lesser sandeel through information from the fishery

2010 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Jensen ◽  
Anna Rindorf ◽  
Peter J. Wright ◽  
Henrik Mosegaard
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Pelagic Fish ◽  
Fishing Ground ◽  
Marine Science ◽  
Foraging Habitat ◽  
Small Pelagic Fish ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea

Abstract Jensen, H., Rindorf, A., Wright, P. J., and Mosegaard, H. 2011. Inferring the location and scale of mixing between habitat areas of lesser sandeel through information from the fishery. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 43–51. Sandeels are small pelagic fish that play an important role in the diet of a range of natural predators. Because of their limited capture by traditional survey gear, little is known about their large-scale distribution or the degree of mixing between habitat areas. Detailed information collected directly from the fishery was used to map fishing grounds, which were then assumed to reflect the foraging habitat of the species. Length distributions from individual hauls were used to assess differences in the distributions as a function of distance between samples. Sandeel foraging habitat covered some 5% of the total area of the North Sea. Mixing between neighbouring fishing grounds was too low to eliminate differences in length distributions at distances between grounds down to 5 km. Within fishing grounds, mixing was sufficient to eliminate differences in length distributions at scales <28 km but insufficient at greater distances. The lack of mixing between grounds may result in large differences in sandeel abundance among adjacent fishing grounds. Further, notable abundance at one end of an extensive fishing ground is not necessarily indicative of similar abundance at its other end.

Large-scale assessment of masking potential by underwater ship noise the North Sea

2021 ◽  
Vol 150 (4) ◽  
pp. A80-A81
Author(s):  
Jakob Tougaard ◽  
Thomas Folegot ◽  
Christ de Jong ◽  
Emily T. Griffiths ◽  
Alexander M. von Benda-Beckmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Large Scale Assessment ◽  
The North ◽  
Scale Assessment ◽  
The North Sea

scholarly journals The impact of sedimentary alkalinity release on the water column CO<sub>2</sub> system in the North Sea

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 841-863 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Brenner ◽  
U. Braeckman ◽  
M. Le Guitton ◽  
F. J. R. Meysman
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Zone ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Dissolved Inorganic Carbon ◽  
Co2 Uptake ◽  
Overlying Water ◽  
Southern North Sea ◽  
The North ◽  
Alkalinity Generation ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. It has been previously proposed that alkalinity release from sediments can play an important role in the carbonate dynamics on continental shelves, lowering the pCO2 of seawater and hence increasing the CO2 uptake from the atmosphere. To test this hypothesis, sedimentary alkalinity generation was quantified within cohesive and permeable sediments across the North Sea during two cruises in September 2011 (basin-wide) and June 2012 (Dutch coastal zone). Benthic fluxes of oxygen (O2), alkalinity (AT) and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) were determined using shipboard closed sediment incubations. Our results show that sediments can form an important source of alkalinity for the overlying water, particularly in the shallow southern North Sea, where high AT and DIC fluxes were recorded in near-shore sediments of the Belgian, Dutch and German coastal zone. In contrast, fluxes of AT and DIC are substantially lower in the deeper, seasonally stratified, northern part of the North Sea. Based on the data collected, we performed a model analysis to constrain the main pathways of alkalinity generation in the sediment, and to quantify how sedimentary alkalinity drives atmospheric CO2 uptake in the southern North Sea. Overall, our results show that sedimentary alkalinity generation should be regarded as a key component in the CO2 dynamics of shallow coastal systems.

scholarly journals Day-ahead Market Modelling of Large-scale Highly-renewable Multi-energy Systems: Analysis of the North Sea Region Towards 2050

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Gea Bermúdez ◽  
Kaushik Das ◽  
Hardi Koduvere ◽  
Matti Juhani Koivisto
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Unit Commitment ◽  
District Heating ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Computational Time ◽  
Integer Variables ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea

This paper proposes a mathematical model to simulate Day-ahead markets of large-scale multi-energy systems with high share of renewable energy. Furthermore, it analyses the importance of including unit commitment when performing such analysis. The results of the case study, which is performed for the North Sea region, show the influence of massive renewable penetration in the energy sector and increasing electrification of the district heating sector towards 2050, and how this impacts the role of other energy sources such as thermal and hydro. The penetration of wind and solar is likely to challenge the need for balancing in the system as well as the profitability of thermal units. The degree of influence of the unit commitment approach is found to be dependent on the configuration of the energy system. Overall, including unit commitment constraints with integer variables leads to more realistic behaviour of the units, at the cost of increasing considerably the computational time. Relaxing integer variables reduces significantly the computational time, without highly compromising the accuracy of the results. The proposed model, together with the insights from the study case, can be specially useful for system operators for optimal operational planning.

scholarly journals FORECASTING OF DAMAGES FROM NATURAL HAZARDS FOR THE “NORTHERN CAUCASUS RESORTS” TOURIST CLUSTER

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-356
Author(s):  
Vyacheslav BABURIN ◽  
◽  
Svetlana BADINA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Northern Caucasus ◽  
Individual Risk ◽  
Economic Damage ◽  
North Caucasus ◽  
Limit Values ◽  
Risk Of Death ◽  
The North ◽  
Study Results

The article proposes a methodological approach to potential damage from natural hazards forecasting in case of large-scale investment projects realization in ski tourism planning, as well as to assessing changes in the vulnerability of the territory in which these projects will be implemented. The method was verified on the data of the “Northern Caucasus Resorts” tourist cluster. The study purpose is the creation and verification of a methodology for socio-economic damage predicting in limit values and vulnerability changing in the regions of the “North Caucasus Resorts” tourist cluster objects localization for the long term. Research methods – statistical (a structural approach based on the identification of common structural patterns of several sets). The lack of statistical information on significant parameters for forecasting determine necessitates of using the various logically non-contradictory revaluations based on the identified structural similarities for the calculation of their values within the planning horizon. The study results and main conclusions – in case of the “North Caucasus Resorts” tourist cluster creation the number of people potentially located in avalanche and mudflow danger areas will significantly increase in all of its facilities localization municipalities, which indicate an increase in the individual risk of death level for this territory. The present population in the ski season in some of the most remote and underdeveloped areas can increase up to 30 times. The increment in the value of the fixed assets for the municipalities under consideration will be from two to 90 times, potential damages in limit values will reach tens of billions rubles.

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