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Evidence of early Flandrian tidal surges in Lower Strathearn, Scotland
Author(s) -
Cullingford Robin A.,
Caseldine Christopher J.,
Gotts Paul E.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of quaternary science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.142
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1099-1417
pISSN - 0267-8179
DOI - 10.1002/jqs.3390040106
Subject(s) - geology , peat , diatom , radiocarbon dating , paleontology , estuary , oceanography , storm , pollen , period (music) , storm surge , clastic rock , thermoluminescence dating , ecological succession , holocene , archaeology , sedimentary rock , geography , ecology , physics , acoustics , biology
Detailed stratigraphic, palaeobotanical (diatom and pollen) and radiometric evidence from a sequence of buried estuarine deposits, buried peat and overlying estuarine ‘carse’ deposits at Wester Rhynd, in Lower Strathearn, suggests the occurrence of two brief marine incursions between the abandonment by the sea of a buried estuarine flat, probably the Low Buried Beach, at about 8765 ± 75 BP, and c. 8500 BP. The first incursion, shortly after 8565 ± 85 BP, caused bottom‐living marine diatoms to be thrown without clastic material onto the rapidly accumulating terrestrial peat. The second, bracketed by dates of 8485 ± 80 and 8510 ± 85 BP, deposited an extremely thin (1 mm) layer of fine sand that interrupts an otherwise unbroken buried peat succession covering the period 8765 ± 75 to 7710 ± 70 BP. The marine diatom, lithostratigraphic and 14 C evidence together are consistent with a storm, storm‐surge or tsunami origin for these events, which are recognised principally from the diatom evidence, having left no mark in the pollen record.