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>

Terra incognita: The Palaeolithic record of northwest Europe and the information potential of the southern North Sea

2014 ◽  
Vol 93 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 43-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Roebroeks
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Middle Part ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Dry Land ◽  
Southern North Sea ◽  
The North ◽  
Terra Incognita ◽  
Northwest Europe ◽  
History Of

AbstractFor major parts of the Palaeolithic substantial areas of the current southern North Sea and what later became the English Channel were dry land. Those areas, now covered by tens of metres of sea, were occasionally core areas for large herds of herbivores and the animals that preyed upon them, including Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers. This is demonstrated by the large amounts of Pleistocene mammal fossils, artefacts and a Neanderthal fossil recovered during the last one and a half centuries. Any consideration of the Pleistocene occupation history of northwest Europe needs to deal with the fact that a major part of the landscape available to Pleistocene hunter-gatherers is currently submerged under the waters of the North Sea, one of the most prolific Pleistocene fossil-bearing localities world-wide. One also needs to take into account the complex landscape evolution of the southern North Sea basin, with geographically varying successions of marine, lacustrine, fluvial and glacial sedimentation and erosion. This paper gives a short overview of the occupation history of northwest Europe, from its earliest traces at the very end of the Lower and the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene up to the middle part of the Upper Palaeolithic, when this part of Europe became deserted for a period of about 10,000 years. Tentative interpretations and questions raised by the overview will be situated in the context of the information potential of the deposits in the southern North Sea and the Channel area.

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.

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 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.

Marine Growth on North Sea Fixed Steel Platforms: Insights From the Decommissioning Industry

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chadi Mallat ◽  
Alistair Corbett ◽  
Glyn Harris ◽  
Marc Lefranc
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Southern North Sea ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Insight Into

It is reputed in the Oil & Gas industry that marine growth is overestimated in the North Sea. Can we quantify this overestimation to better tackle the challenges marine growth incurs? This paper provides insight into the intrinsic and diverse nature of marine growth. It documents the biofouling development and the factors that affect it globally. Focus is made on fixed steel platforms in the North Sea approaching the end of their economic lives. A methodology to quantify the weight of marine growth is proposed and illustrated. 28 years after its installation, the weight of marine growth accumulated on Valhall 2/4G jacket located in Southern North Sea is evaluated based on the proposed method. It is confirmed that the current regulations overestimate the weight of marine growth in the North Sea.

scholarly journals Investigations Upon the Water Movements in the English Channel. Summer, 1924

1927 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 685-721 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. N. Carruthers
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
English Channel ◽  
Average Speed ◽  
Southern North Sea ◽  
The North ◽  
Westerly Winds ◽  
The North Sea

In July, 1924, 250 floating, and an equal number of bottom-trailing, bottles were put out at selected places in the western English Channel. Fifty of each type were put out at each of the two routine Stations E2 and E3, and the same number was “liberated” at each of three selected stretches along the steamship route from Southampton to St. Malo. Those surface bottles, which did not strand locally, travelled rapidly up Channel towards the North Sea and across it. Many bottles arrived in the Skager-Rack after performing their journey of some 700 miles at the rate of 6 miles a day and more. An adequate study of wind conditions, as recorded at several stations along the length of the Channel and at one station in the southern North Sea, revealed the fact that there was, for some 5½ months (counting from the time of liberation of the bottles), an almost uninterrupted predominance of south-westerly winds—as recorded at all stations considered. The whole area of the Channel was swept by south-westerly winds of average speed of some 9 miles a day for at least 5½ months subsequent to the time of putting out of the bottles. July, 1924, had (according to the Falmouth Observatory records) the largest proportion of westerly winds experienced for 54 years; 20 days of this month had winds with westerly components. The association of the unusually persistent westerly winds with the rapid travel of surface bottles towards and across the North Sea is interesting.

scholarly journals Warm-water decapods and the trophic amplification of climate in the North Sea

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 773-776 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Lindley ◽  
G. Beaugrand ◽  
C. Luczak ◽  
J.-M. Dewarumez ◽  
R. R. Kirby
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Warm Water ◽  
Climate Signal ◽  
Southern North Sea ◽  
The North ◽  
Ecosystem Shift ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Induced Changes ◽  
Water Species

A long-term time series of plankton and benthic records in the North Sea indicates an increase in decapods and a decline in their prey species that include bivalves and flatfish recruits. Here, we show that in the southern North Sea the proportion of decapods to bivalves doubled following a temperature-driven, abrupt ecosystem shift during the 1980s. Analysis of decapod larvae in the plankton reveals a greater presence and spatial extent of warm-water species where the increase in decapods is greatest. These changes paralleled the arrival of new species such as the warm-water swimming crab Polybius henslowii now found in the southern North Sea. We suggest that climate-induced changes among North Sea decapods have played an important role in the trophic amplification of a climate signal and in the development of the new North Sea dynamic regime.

The Carrack Field, Blocks 49/14b, 49/15a and 49/15b, UK North Sea

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Rieu ◽  
R. J. Porter
Keyword(s):  
Production Rate ◽  
North Sea ◽  
The South ◽  
Production Time ◽  
Water Contact ◽  
Southern North Sea ◽  
The North ◽  
Current Production ◽  
Main Fault

AbstractThe Carrack Field, located in the Southern North Sea Blocks 49/14b and 49/15a, has of the order or 15 bcm (530 bcf) gas initially in place and is operated by Shell UK Ltd. The field consists of a pop-up structure in the south of the field and extends to the north with a gently-dipping monoclinal structure. The reservoir comprises sandstones of the Permian Silverpit and Leman Sandstone formations, which contain c. 85% of the in-place resources. The quality of the reservoir decreases rapidly to the north. Gas is also produced from Carboniferous sandstones of late Duckmantian (Westphalian B)–Bolsovian (Westphalian C) age.Initially, the field was in pressure communication both laterally and vertically with a single gas–water contact. During production time, however, the three main fault blocks behaved independently, and decimetre-thick shale intervals acted as vertical baffles between the sandstone units.The Carrack Field has been in production since 2003 and is developed by a single platform with seven mainly deviated wells. The current production rate is c. 0.7 MMm3/day (25 MMscfgd). Until the end of field life in the 2030s, the field is expected to produce gas of the order of a few bcm. The main remaining opportunity is the undeveloped Carrack West compartment.

The Diversity of Nematode Communities in the Southern North Sea

1974 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 251-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Heip ◽  
W. Decraemer
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Benthic Communities ◽  
Nematode Communities ◽  
Diversity Measure ◽  
Southern North Sea ◽  
The North ◽  
Harpacticoid Copepods ◽  
Logarithmic Series

Diversity is one of the most important parameters used in the description of a community; several theories relating diversity to other phenomena as predation, competition and stability have been proposed (Pianka, 1966). As a result of the increasing interest in diversity a number of studies have appeared during recent years, but the meiofauna has until recently been almost completely neglected, rather surprisingly when one considers the importance of this group of organisms in all marine benthic communities. Coull (1972) studied recently the diversity of harpacticoid copepods, with nematodes the major meiobenthic component, along the North Carolina shelf and in the deep sea. Warwick & Buchanan (1970) appear to be the only ones to have studied diversity in nematode communities, using α of the logarithmic series (Fisher, Corbett & Williams, 1943) as a diversity measure. The paucity of data seems primarily to be due to the taxonomic difficulties encountered in studying nematodes.

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