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1.
The ‘new glacial stratigraphy’ (NGS) of Britain postulates that deposits hitherto assigned to the Anglian glaciation in Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 12 represent MIS 16, 12, 10 and 6. This controversial idea can be tested at Sidestrand in north Norfolk, where fossiliferous temperate‐stage deposits underlie the oldest and overlie the youngest of the glacial deposits. Previous work has considered biostratigraphy and amino acid dating of these temperate‐stage deposits, but did not achieve tight age constraint using the amino acid evidence alone. The total hydrolysable amino acid fraction in intra‐crystalline protein from Bithynia tentaculata opercula has previously been analysed for concentrations of serine and alanine. Statistical screening of these data gives alanine/serine ratios of 4.572 ± 0.114 for the Sidestrand Hall Member (beneath the glacial deposits) and 3.564 ± 0.091 for the Sidestrand Cliff Formation (overlying the glacial deposits). These ratios imply ages of MIS 13a and 11c, respectively, indicating the latest Cromerian and early Hoxnian interglacials and invalidating the NGS. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

2.
Considerable debate surrounds the age of the Middle Pleistocene glacial succession in East Anglia following some recent stratigraphical reinterpretations. Resolution of the stratigraphy here is important since it not only concerns the glacial history of the region but also has a bearing on our understanding of the earliest human occupation of north‐western Europe. The orthodox consensus that all the tills were emplaced during the Anglian (Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 12) has recently been challenged by a view assigning each major till to a different glacial stage, before, during and after MIS 12. Between Trimingham and Sidestrand on the north Norfolk coast, datable organic sediments occur immediately below and above the glacial succession. The oldest glacial deposit (Happisburgh Till) directly overlies the ‘Sidestrand Unio‐bed’, here defined as the Sidestrand Hall Member of the Cromer Forest‐bed Formation. Dating of these sediments therefore has a bearing on the maximum age of the glacial sequence. This paper reviews the palaeobotany and describes the faunal assemblages recovered from the Sidestrand Unio‐bed, which accumulated in a fluvial environment in a fully temperate climate with regional deciduous woodland. There are indications from the ostracods for weakly brackish conditions. Significant differences are apparent between the Sidestrand assemblages and those from West Runton, the type site of the Cromerian Stage. These differences do not result from contrasting facies or taphonomy but reflect warmer palaeotemperatures at Sidestrand and a much younger age. This conclusion is suggested by the higher proportion of thermophiles at Sidestrand and the occurrence of a water vole with unrooted molars (Arvicola) rather than its ancestor Mimomys savini with rooted molars. Amino acid racemisation data also indicate that Sidestrand is significantly younger than West Runton. These data further highlight the stratigraphical complexity of the ‘Cromerian Complex’ and support the conventional view that the Happisburgh Till was emplaced during the Anglian rather than the recently advanced view that it dates from MIS 16. Moreover, new evidence from the Trimingham lake bed (Sidestrand Cliff Formation) above the youngest glacial outwash sediments (Briton's Lane Formation) indicates that they also accumulated during a Middle Pleistocene interglacial – probably MIS 11. All of this evidence is consistent with a short chronology placing the glacial deposits within MIS 12, rather than invoking multiple episodes of glaciation envisaged in the ‘new glacial stratigraphy’ during MIS 16, 12, 10 and 6. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

3.
A sequence of fossiliferous organic sediments spanning the whole of an interglacial has been investigated from Quinton, near Birmingham, United Kingdom This interglacial can be correlated on palynological grounds with the Hoxnian Interglacial of England; equivalent to the Holsteinian Interglacial of central Europe and to Marine Isotope Stage 11. A pollen diagram and coleopteran spectrum were obtained from the same series of samples. By using the mutual climatic range method on the coleopteran assemblages, it has been possible to quantify the thermal climatic conditions at this time. They show clear evidence for a sudden and intense climatic oscillation during the late temperate stage of the interglacial—named the Quinton Cold Interlude. At this time mean temperatures of the warmest month (July) declined suddenly by at least 5 °C and mean temperatures of the coldest months (January and February) by more than 10 °C. Subsequently cool-temperate conditions returned. The pollen diagram through this interval shows little or no response to this climatic event. It is too early yet to generalise about the regional significance of the Quinton Cold Interlude but a similar climatic oscillation also occurs towards the closing stage of the MIS11 Interglacial at Hoxne, Norfolk, UK, suggesting that the cold interlude was at least regional in extent. A short climatic oscillation of similar intensity has also been interpreted from coleopteran evidence towards the end of the MIS13 Interglacial at Waverley Wood Farm Pit, Warwickshire, UK, indicating that such events may characterise the later stages of other interglacials. These severe climatic oscillations towards the end of interglacials may have relevance to our understanding of the closing phase of the present interglacial.  相似文献   

4.
The archaeology of Britain during the early Middle Pleistocene (MIS 19–12) is represented by a number of key sites across eastern and southern England. These sites include Pakefield, Happisburgh 1, High Lodge, Warren Hill, Waverley Wood, Boxgrove, Kent's Cavern, and Westbury-sub-Mendip, alongside a ‘background scatter’ lithic record associated with the principal river systems (Bytham, pre-diversion Thames, and Solent) and raised beaches (Westbourne–Arundel). Hominin behaviour can be characterised in terms of: preferences for temperate or cool temperate climates and open/woodland mosaic habitats (indicated by mammalian fauna, mollusca, insects, and sediments); a biface-dominated material culture characterised by technological diversity, although with accompanying evidence for distinctive core and flake (Pakefield) and flake tool (High Lodge) assemblages; probable direct hunting-based subsistence strategies (with a focus upon large mammal fauna); and generally locally-focused spatial and landscape behaviours (principally indicated by raw material sources data), although with some evidence of dynamic, mobile and structured technological systems. The British data continues to support a ‘modified short chronology’ to the north of the Alps and the Pyrenees, with highly sporadic evidence for a hominin presence prior to 500–600 ka, although the ages of key assemblages are subject to ongoing debates regarding the chronology of the Bytham river terraces and the early Middle Pleistocene glaciations of East Anglia.  相似文献   

5.
Organic sediments in a gravel quarry at Block Fen, Cambridgeshire, form a sheet dividing lower from upper gravels. Analyses of pollen, macroscopic plant remains and molluscs from these organic sediments are presented. They indicate the presence of temperate freshwater and slightly brackish fine floodplain sediments, which, on the basis of the palaeobotany, are correlated with the temperate Ipswichian Stage. The freshwater sediments, ascribed to Ipswichian substage IIb, occur at ca. ?3 m OD. Marine-influenced tidal sediments, ascribed to Ipswichian substage III, occur at ca. ?6 m OD. No evidence was found for the presence of more than one temperate stage in the sequence. The lower gravels are then correlated with the cold Wolstonian Stage and the upper gravels with the cold Devensian Stage. In contrast to the woodland environments indicated by the palaeobotany of the Ipswichian organic sediments, post-Ipswichian pollen diagrams and macroscopic plant remains in the upper suite of sands and gravels indicate open tree-less vegetation typical of the cold Devensian Stage. They also contain a typical cold-stage mollusc fauna. The sediments containing these floras and faunas are associated with thermal contraction cracks, indicating the presence of permafrost. The final sand and gravel aggradation in the Devensian forms the Block Fen Terrace, near 0 m OD. The evidence indicates that it is younger than the lacustrine sediments resulting from the blocking of the Fenland at the Wash by Late Devensian ice at ca. 18.5 ka BP. The sequence at Block Fen is related to nearby Ipswichian and Devensian sediments at Chatteris, March, Wimblington and Mepal, and to deposits at Wretton on the east margin of Fenland. The correlation permits an outline reconstruction of the history of the valley carrying the River Great Ouse between the Isle of Ely and the Chatteris and March ‘islands’ from the time of a gravel aggradation before the Ipswichian to the Flandrian. The reconstruction shows the time and level of the Ipswichian marine incursion into the Middle Level of Fenland and the extent of aggradation and erosion in the Devensian.  相似文献   

6.
The Balderton Terrace marks a former course of the River Trent between Newark and the Lincoln Gap. The principal deposit, the Balderton Sand and Gravel, is interpreted as a braided river sediment. Ice wedge casts truncated by intraformational erosion surfaces at many levels indicate syndepositional permafrost. Remnant cover deposits overlying the Balderton Sand and Gravel include the partly aeolian Whisby Sand. Locally, both the upper part of the Balderton Sand and Gravel and the cover deposits exhibit features indicative of temperate climate pedogenesis. All these deposits are affected by subsequent cryoturbation. On the basis of these features and the geomorphological and topographical relationship to other terrace deposits of the area, the Balderton Sand and Gravel and Whisby Sand are regarded as post-Hoxnian and pre-lpswichian, i.e. Wolstonian. Electron spin resonance age determinations for fossil elephant teeth and amino acid analyses on molluscs from the Balderton Sand and Gravel suggest correlation with Oxygen Isotope Stage 6. The Balderton Sand and Gravel has yielded a cold-climate mammalian fauna dominated by woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros, though rarer species suggest periods of milder climate. Silts from channels near the base of the deposit have produced pollen, mollusc, ostracod and beetle assemblages also indicating a cold climate.  相似文献   

7.
Assemblages of foraminifers, ostracods and molluscs from temperate Ipswichian Stage (last temperate stage) sediments and overlying cold Devensian Stage (last cold stage) sediments at Somersham in the southern Fenland of Cambridgeshire have been analysed. The Ipswichian sediments contain faunas consistent with temperate brackish water conditions under tidal influence. The Devensian assemblages were recovered from a series of sands and gravels laterally accreting in a channel cutting into Ipswichian sediments. In contrast to the Ipswichian faunas, the faunas of particular Devensian samples show a complex mixture of temperate freshwater, brackish and marine taxa. The molluscs are mainly freshwater, with few land snails; they occur together with foraminifers and ostracods. Freshwater, brackish water and marine ostracods are present with foraminifers. A sample of Devensian fine laminated sediment in the channel was analysed for pollen; only abundant pre-Quaternary spores were present, with abundant foraminifers in the same sample. The taphonomy of the assemblages and the difficulties of their interpretation in environmental terms are discussed. The importance of taphonomy in assessing environments, climate, range of taxa and dating is stressed.  相似文献   

8.
Fossiliferous silts within the Late Pleistocene Kempton Park Gravel, of the River Thames Valley, were exposed in 1980 during foundation works for the Ismaili Centre in South Kensington, London. The results of a multidisciplinary study of the geomorphology, sediments, fossil plants, vertebrates, molluscs, ostracods and insects are reported. The silts were deposited under two distinct climatic regimes; a lower unit accumulated when the climate was arctic and an upper when the temperatures were at least as warm as those of the present day. Both these units occupy the same channel system and are separated from one another by less than a metre of sediment, implying that the climatic change was probably sudden and intense. The strongest evidence for this climatic difference comes from a study of the Coleoptera, which show an almost complete replacement of the arctic element in the fauna by a suite of temperate species. Palaeotemperature reconstructions using the Mutual Climatic Range method, based on the coleopteran assemblages from the lower unit, suggest that the mean temperature of the warmest month was 9±2 °C and that of the coldest month −22±10 °C. For the upper unit the mean temperature of the warmest month had risen to about 17 °C and that of the coldest month to about −4 °C. The episode represented by the lower unit, with its arctic climate, had not previously been recognized in the Thames Valley. The fauna from the upper, temperate, unit is very similar to that from other sites in the Kempton Park Gravel, such as that from Isleworth, 10 km upriver, which, like the upper unit at the Ismaili Centre, was characterized by the virtual absence of trees. It would appear that in such cases this treelessness does not indicate cold conditions, equivalent to those of the modern tundra, but may instead result from a combination of ecological and temporal factors. The value of multidisciplinary studies in reaching such conclusions is emphasized.The temperate episode described here is correlated with the thermal maximum at the early part of the Upton Warren Interstadial Complex. An earlier suggestion, based on amino acid epimerization ratios, that the Upton Warren Interstadial correlates with Oxygen Isotope Sub-stage 5a is not supported by the data, which show no evidence of the forested environments that characterized this period in both Britain and the adjacent Continent. It is thought that the temperate deposits at the Ismaili Centre belong to the Middle (Pleniglacial), rather than the Early, Devensian (Weichselian) and are equivalent to Oxygen Isotope Stage 3.  相似文献   

9.
Pleistocene sediments and soils exposed at Stebbing in central Essex, England are described, analysed and interpreted. The sand and gravel units above Eocene London Clay and Upper Pliocene Red Crag are shown to be a high level member of the Kesgrave Formation, with a surface immediately beneath that of the Westland Green Gravels, which are tentatively assigned to the Pre-Pastonian ‘a’ Stage of the British Quaternary succession. The rubified, argillic soil developed in the surface of these fluvial deposits is a composite of the Valley Farm and Barham Soils and displays micromorphological evidence of several phases of clay illuviation, gleying and clay coating disruption. Originally truncated and buried beneath Anglian gelifluction deposits, cover sand and till, the soil has been exhumed in most places by subsequent erosion. The full succession, however, is preserved within large gulls that formed by periglacial cambering prior to this erosion. More recent loess incorporation and pedogenesis have modified the exhumed soil and the materials within the gulls.  相似文献   

10.
Pleistocene deposits containing the disarticulated skeleton of a mammoth, and associated faunal and floral remains, were discovered in July 1990 at Upper Strensham, Worcestershire. The environmental evidence from the fauna and flora together with limited geological evidence, indicates that the deposits accumulated within a low energy fluvial environment with a surrounding marsh and restricted tree cover on, or close to, the floodplain. The patchy occurrence of trees in a species-rich grassland is discussed, and the climatic significance of the fauna and flora is considered. The Strensham site lies within the valley of the River Avon, which is known to contain at least five altitudinally distinct river terraces. The deposits at Strensham lie beneath a terraced surface that cannot be accommodated within the existing framework of terrace development in the valley, and evidence is presented which may suggest that these deposits form a previously unrecognised fluvial unit, the Strensham Member of the Avon Valley Formation. Amino-acid age estimates from shells taken from the fossiliferous sediments of the Strensham Member suggest a correlation with Oxygen Isotope Stage 7. This correlation suggests that the temperate deposits at this site should be correlated with the temperate phase recorded at Marsworth, Buckinghamshire and Stoke Goldington in the valley of the Great Ouse.  相似文献   

11.
Interglacial lake deposits at Tye Green, Stansted, resting on unweathered till and overlain by a weathered diamicton are correlated with the temperate Hoxnian Stage. The sediments represent the infilling of an isolated kettle-hole type of lake basin formed at the end of the cold Anglian Stage. Through the temperate period this basin was infilled by inorganic and organic sediments that record the development and decline of deciduous forest. Later periglacial conditions are indicated by the final infilling of the basin by reworked till. The sedimentary sequence and vegetational development recorded in the sediments at Tye Green are compared with other Hoxnian sites in eastern England. Changes in deposition rates are interpreted as representing water-table fluctuations resulting from changes in precipitation. The deposits at Tye Green provide a useful stratigraphical marker in the glacial sequence of the district. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

12.
A multi‐disciplinary approach was followed to investigate two thick palaeosol strata that alternate with wind‐blown dominated deposits developed along the Alghero coast (North‐west Sardinia, Italy). Optically stimulated luminescence ages reveal that both palaeosols were developed during cooler drier periods: the first one at around 70 ka Marine Isotope Stage 4 and the latter around 50 ka (Marine Isotope Stage 3). In contrast, the pedological features indicate that the palaeosols underwent heavy weathering processes under warm humid to sub‐humid conditions, characteristic of the Sardinian climate during the last interglacial stage (Marine Isotope Stage 5e). To reconcile this apparent data discrepancy, a range of sedimentological and pedological analyses were conducted. These analyses reveal that the palaeosols possess a complex history, with accumulation and weathering occurring during Marine Isotope Stage 5e, and erosion, colluviation and final deposition taking place during the following cold stages. Thus, even if these reddish palaeosols were last formed during the glacial period, the sediments building up these strata probably record the climate of the last interglacial stage (Marine Isotope Stage 5e). Trace element and X‐ray diffraction analyses, together with scanning electron microscope images, reveal the presence of Saharan dust in the parent material of the palaeosols. However, no evidence of any far‐travelled African dust has been observed in the Marine Isotope Stage 4–3 aeolian deposits. It is possible to conclude that in the West Mediterranean islands, Saharan dust input, even if of modest magnitude, is preserved preferentially in soils accumulated and weathered during interglacial stages.  相似文献   

13.
The occurrence of the freshwater genus Tanousia Servain 1881 (Hydrobiidae) in the Middle Pleistocene lacustrine succession of the Piànico-Sèllere Basin (Bergamo, Northern Italy) represents a significant biostratigraphical discovery. The Tanousia were recovered from the basal part of the carbonate varved bed (BVC), in siltysandy slump sediments, and from the lower and middle parts of the La Palazzina Member (MLP) of the Piànico formation. The BVC unit, in which a dated tephra layer occurs, accumulated during an interglacial phase, as shown by pollen analyses. The MLP Tanousia-bearing layers have been laid down during cool–temperate climate oscillation. The Piànico population of Tanousia displays great morphological variability but is similar to T. runtoniana (Sandberger, 1880), T. stenostoma (Nordmann, 1901) and T. cf. T. stenostoma (Nordmann, 1901), from the Bavelian and Cromerian interglacial deposits of late Early and early Middle Pleistocene age in Northern Europe. As for these species, the Tanousia population from Piànico appears to indicate fluvial conditions under a fully temperate climate.  相似文献   

14.
The Kangankunde Carbonatite Complex from the Cretaceous Chilwa Alkaline Province in southern Malawi contains ankeritic and siderite carbonatite that are affected by late stage remobilisation by a carbothermal or hydrothermal fluid. The coarse pegmatitic siderite carbonatite that hosts exotic minerals like monazite, synchysite, bastnasite, strontianite and apatite in vugs and cavities constitutes some of the richest rare earth deposits in the world. Besides these minerals, our studies reveal the presence of collinsite and aragonite from the siderite carbonatite. Fine drusy monazites are seen as overgrowths on thin veinlets of siderite within the rare earth mineralised zones. We present unambiguous SEM-based surface textural evidence such as presence of dissolution-corrosion features like etching along cleavage, solution channels, solution pits, sinstered scaly surface, etc. along with rare earth mineralisation that suggests the exotic minerals in the siderite carbonatite did not crystallise from carbonate magma and are a result of sub-solidus processes involving carbonatite-derived fluids. We believe that the monazite-synchysitebastnasite-strontianite-collinsite assemblages were formed by juvenile post magmatic hydrothermal alteration of pre-existing carbonatite by a complex CO2-rich and alkali chloride-carbonate-bearing fluid at ～250 to 400°C in an open system. This late ‘magmatic’ to ‘hydrothermal’ activity was responsible for considerable changes in rock texture and mineralogy leading to mobility of rare earth elements during fluid-rock interaction. These aspects need to be properly understood and addressed before using trace and rare earth element (REE) geochemistry in interpreting carbonatite genesis.  相似文献   

15.
The northern limb of the Bushveld Complex, South Africa contains a number of occurrences of platinum-group element (PGE) mineralisation within Main Zone rocks, whereas the rest of the complex has PGE-depleted Main Zone units. On the farm Moorddrift, Cu–Ni–PGE sulphide mineralisation is hosted within the Upper Main Zone in a layered package of gabbronorites, mottled anorthosites and thin pyroxenites. Our observations indicate that a 10-m-thick, ‘reef-style’ package of mineralisation has been extensively ‘disturbed’, forming a mega breccia which in some localities may distribute mineralised rocks over intersections of over 300 m. The sulphides are made up of pyrrhotite, pentlandite and chalcopyrite, heavily altered around their margins and overprinted by secondary pyrite. Platinum-group mineral assemblages typical of primary magmatic deposits, with Pt and Pd tellurides and sperrylite, are present in the ‘reef-style’ package, whereas there is a decrease in tellurides and an increase in antimonides in the ‘disturbed’ package, interpreted to be related to hydrothermal recrystallization during veining and brecciation. Sulphur isotopes show that all sulphides within the mineralised package on Moorddrift have a crustal signature consistent with local country rock sediments of the Transvaal Supergroup. We interpret the mineralisation at Moorddrift as a primary sulphide reef, likely produced as a result of the mixing of crustally contaminated magmas in the Upper Main Zone, which has been locally disrupted post-crystallisation. At present, there are no firm links between Moorddrift and the other known PGE occurrences in the Main Zone at the Aurora and Waterberg projects, although the stratigraphic position of all may be similar and thus intriguing. Nonetheless, they do demonstrate that the Main Zone of the northern limb of the Bushveld Complex, unlike the eastern and western limbs, can be considered a fertile unit for potential PGE mineralisation.  相似文献   

16.
Diatom distribution in a 60-m long borehole from a siliciclastics-dominated ‘stable’ inner continental shelf in the South China Sea off Hong Kong was investigated. The Quaternary sediments contained evidence for five interglacial marine transgressions dating back to oxygen-isotope Stage 12, and yielded 53 genera and 186 taxa of diatoms. Intertidal species and nearshore shallow water species, including both planktonic and benthonic tropical and subtropical varieties, were dominant. Four diatom zones reflecting the shallow water environment have been recognized in the top 13.8 m of the borehole. Diatoms are missing in Stage 11 while Stage 7 and Stage 9 are very low in diversity and abundance compared to Stage 1 and Stage 5. The distribution pattern found is accounted for by the duration of time available for frustule dissolution through acid–sulphate soil development during Stages 2, 6, 8 and 10 when the shelf was subaerially exposed. Preservation of diatoms is best in Stage 1 because the deposits have never been subaerially exposed followed closely by Stage 5. Aging mainly through post-depositional dissolution is identified as the important controlling factor in determining diatom distribution in pre-Holocene deposits.  相似文献   

17.
The Kingston Peak Formation of the Pahrump Group in the Death Valley region of the Basin and Range Province, USA, is the thick (over 3 km) mixed siliciclastic–carbonate fill of a long‐lived structurally‐complex Neoproterozoic rift basin and is recognized by some as a key ‘climatostratigraphic’ succession recording panglacial Snowball Earth events. A facies analysis of the Kingston Peak Formation shows it to be largely composed of ‘tectonofacies’ which are subaqueous mass flow deposits recording cannibalization of older Pahrump carbonate strata exposed by local faulting. Facies include siltstone, sandstone and conglomerate turbidites, carbonate megabreccias (olistoliths) and related breccias, and interbedded debrites. Secondary facies are thin carbonates and pillowed basalts. Four distinct associations of tectonofacies (‘base‐of‐scarp’; FA1, ‘mid‐slope’; FA2, ‘base‐of‐slope’; FA3, and a ‘carbonate margin’ association; FA4) reflect the initiation and progradation of deep water clastic wedges at the foot of fault scarps. ‘Tectonosequences’ record episodes of fault reactivation resulting in substantial increases in accommodation space and water depths, the collapse of fault scarps and consequent downslope mass flow events. Carbonates of FA4 record the cessation of tectonic activity and resulting sediment starvation ending the growth of clastic wedges. Tectonosequences are nested within regionally‐extensive tectono‐stratigraphic units of earlier workers that are hundreds to thousands of metres in thickness, recording the long‐term evolution of the rifted Laurentian continental margin during the protracted breakup of Rodinia. Debrite facies of the Kingston Peak Formation are classically described as ice‐contact glacial deposits recording globally‐correlative panglacials but they result from partial to complete subaqueous mixing of fault‐generated coarse‐grained debris and fine‐grained distal sediment on a slope conditioned by tectonic activity. The sedimentology (tectonofacies) and stratigraphy (tectonosequences) of the Kingston Peak Formation reflect a fundamental control on local sedimentation in the basin by faulting and likely earthquake activity, not by any global glacial climate.  相似文献   

18.
River-channel and colluvial deposits, near Marsworth, Buckinghamshire, record a temperate-periglacial-temperate sequence during the late Middle Pleistocene. The deposits of a lower channel contain tufa clasts bearing leaf impressions that include Acer sp., and Sorbus aucuparia and containing temperate arboreal pollen attributed to ash-dominated woodland. The tufa probably formed at the mouth of a limestone spring before being redeposited in a small river whose deposits contain plant remains, Mollusca, Coleoptera, Ostracoda and vertebrate bones of temperate affinities. The sediments, sedimentary structures and limited biological remains above the Lower Channel deposits indicate that fluvial deposition preceded climatic cooling into periglacial conditions. Fluvial deposition recurred during a later temperate episode, as shown by the mammalian bone assemblage in stratigraphically higher channel deposits. The Upper Channel deposits are confidently attributed to Oxygen Isotope Sub-Stage 5e (Ipswichian) on the basis of their vertebrate remains. However, the age of the Lower Channel deposits is less clear. The mammalian and coleopteran remains in the Lower Channel strongly suggest correlation with Oxygen Isotope Stage 7 on the basis of their similarities to other sites whose stratigraphy is better known and the clear difference of the Lower Channel assemblage from well-established faunas of Ipswichian or any other age. By contrast, U–Th dating of the tufa clasts suggests an age post 160 ka BP, while Aile/Ile ratios on Mollusca point to an Ipswichian age and younger. Four ways of interpreting this age discrepancy are considered, the preferred one correlating the Lower Channel deposits with Oxygen Isotope Stage 7.  相似文献   

19.
For much of the Middle and all of the Upper Pleistocene the Upper Thames valley has remained outside the limit of ice advance. The main agents of landform evolution have been the River Thames and its tributaries, which have cut down episodically and in so doing have abandoned a series of river terraces. This study reports the findings of an investigation into exposures in the deposits underlying the Floodplain Terrace at Cassington, near Oxford, England. The sequence exposed reveals a stratigraphy of basal, predominantly fine-grained, lithofacies overlain by coarser gravel lithofacies. The fluvial architecture of these deposits indicates a major change in fluvial style from a low-energy (meandering) to a high energy (braided) channel system. The flora and fauna from the lower fine-grained lithofacies display a marked change from temperate at the base, to colder conditions towards the top, indicating a close association between deteriorating climate and changing fluvial depositional style. Amino acid and luminescence geochronology from the basal fine-grained lithofacies suggest correlation with Oxygen Isotope Stage 5 and hence it is argued that the major environmental change recorded at the site relates to the Oxygen Isotope Stage 5–4 transition. Deposition of much of the overlying gravel sequence probably occurred during Oxygen Isotope Stage 4, suggesting that the latter half of the Devensian may be less significant, in terms of fluvial landscape evolution in the Upper Thames valley, than was believed previously. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

20.
The mandible of Homo heidelbergensis was found 1907 in the sand pit Grafenrain at Mauer in coarse fluvial sands 24 m below the surface, deposited in a former course of the Neckar River. These ‘Mauer sands’ are overlain by a series of glacial-climate loess deposits with intercalated interglacial palaeosols, which can be correlated with Quaternary climate history, thus indicating an early Middle Pleistocene age for H. heidelbergensis. The ‘Mauer sands’ are famous for their rather rich mammal fauna, which clearly indicates interglacial climate conditions. The faunal evidence – in particular the micromammals – place the ‘Mauer sands’ into MIS 15 or MIS 13 although most stratigraphic arguments favour correlation to MIS 15 and therefore to an age of ca 600 ka.  相似文献   

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