Analysis of stratigraphical sequences at Cocina Cave (Spain) using rare earth elements geochemistry     

Gianni Gallello  Mirco Ramacciotti  Oreto García-Puchol  Simon Chenery  Alfredo Cortell-Nicolau  MARíA Luisa Cervera  Agustin Diez-Castillo  Agustín Pastor  Sarah B. McClure 《Boreas: An International Journal of Quaternary Research》2021,50(4):1190-1208

This study investigates the stratigraphical sequence of Cocina Cave (Spain) employing and testing for the first time the capability of rare earth elements as markers of human activities in caves. Located in Dos Aguas (Valencian Community, Spain), Cocina Cave is characterized by the presence of several Holocene archaeological deposits from the final Mesolithic to the present day and is a pivotal site for understanding the socio-ecological dynamics of the last hunter-gatherer inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula and the transition to pastoral and agricultural economies in the Western Mediterranean. However, the identification of strata from particular time-periods in the cave is often difficult due to the homogeneity of layers, the poor archaeological record in some strata and the presence of severe disturbance phenomena. The methodological approach of this study consisted of cross-referencing rare earth elements and other chemical markers with the archaeological stratigraphical interpretation, in an attempt to not only support the identification of the anthropic contribution to the formation of Cocina Cave strata, but also to characterize and confirm different natural and occupational episodes, particularly those associated with hunter-gatherer, early agriculturalist, and shepherd activities. Sediments were collected from different excavation areas and analysed for major elements, trace elements, rare earth elements (REE), soil organic matter (SOM) amounts and pH. Multivariate statistics were employed to group samples according to their elemental profile, and these were then compared to the archaeological temporal interpretation. The obtained results showed that REE amount and fractionation geochemical processes were regulated by carbonates, phosphates and pH. The use of REE as markers was particularly useful as their concentrations and their calculated ratios and anomaly distributions were demonstrated to be highly consistent with the archaeological stratigraphical interpretation.  相似文献   

Detailing the impact of the Storegga Tsunami at Montrose,Scotland     

Mark D. Bateman  Tim C. Kinnaird  Jon Hill  Robert A. Ashurst  Jenna Mohan  Rebecca B. I. Bateman  Ruth Robinson 《Boreas: An International Journal of Quaternary Research》2021,50(4):1059-1078

The Storegga tsunami, dated in Norway to 8150±30 cal. years BP, hit many countries bordering the North Sea. Run-ups of >30 m occurred and 1000s of kilometres of coast were impacted. Whilst recent modelling successfully generated a tsunami wave train, the wave heights and velocities, it under-estimated wave run-ups. Work presented here used luminescence to directly date the Storegga tsunami deposits at the type site of Maryton, Aberdeenshire in Scotland. It also undertook sedimentological characterization to establish provenance, and number and relative power of the tsunami waves. Tsunami model refinement used this to better understand coastal inundation. Luminescence ages successfully date Scottish Storegga tsunami deposits to 8100±250 years. Sedimentology showed that at Montrose, three tsunami waves came from the northeast or east, over-ran pre-existing marine sands and weathered igneous bedrock on the coastal plain. Incorporation of an inundation model predicts well a tsunami impacting on the Montrose Basin in terms of replicate direction and sediment size. However, under-estimation of run-up persisted requiring further consideration of palaeotopography and palaeo-near-shore bathymetry for it to agree with sedimentary evidence. Future model evolution incorporating this will be better able to inform on the hazard risk and potential impacts for future high-magnitude submarine generated tsunami events.  相似文献   

Geospatial analysis of land use driving force in coal mining area: case study in Ningdong,China     

El-Hamid  Hazem T. Abd  Caiyong  Wei  Yongting  Zhang 《GeoJournal》2021,86(2):605-620

GeoJournal - Geospatial techniques such as remote sensing and Geographic Information System are very important for studying the dynamic process of land use. To analyze the land use change and...  相似文献   

Pattern,style and timing of British–Irish Ice Sheet advance and retreat over the last 45 000 years: evidence from NW Scotland and the adjacent continental shelf     

Tom Bradwell  Derek Fabel  Chris D. Clark  Richard C. Chiverrell  David Small  Rachel K. Smedley  Margot H. Saher  Steven G. Moreton  Dayton Dove  S. Louise Callard  Geoff A. T. Duller  Alicia Medialdea  Mark D. Bateman  Matthew J. Burke  Neil McDonald  Sean Gilgannon  Sally Morgan  David H. Roberts  Colm ó Cofaigh 《第四纪科学杂志》2021,36(5):871-933

Predicting the future response of ice sheets to climate warming and rising global sea level is important but difficult. This is especially so when fast-flowing glaciers or ice streams, buffered by ice shelves, are grounded on beds below sea level. What happens when these ice shelves are removed? And how do the ice stream and the surrounding ice sheet respond to the abruptly altered boundary conditions? To address these questions and others we present new geological, geomorphological, geophysical and geochronological data from the ice-stream-dominated NW sector of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS). The study area covers around 45 000 km² of NW Scotland and the surrounding continental shelf. Alongside seabed geomorphological mapping and Quaternary sediment analysis, we use a suite of over 100 new absolute ages (including cosmogenic-nuclide exposure ages, optically stimulated luminescence ages and radiocarbon dates) collected from onshore and offshore, to build a sector-wide ice-sheet reconstruction combining all available evidence with Bayesian chronosequence modelling. Using this information we present a detailed assessment of ice-sheet advance/retreat history, and the glaciological connections between different areas of the NW BIIS sector, at different times during the last glacial cycle. The results show a highly dynamic, partly marine, partly terrestrial, ice-sheet sector undergoing large size variations in response to sub-millennial-scale climatic (Dansgaard–Oeschger) cycles over the last 45 000 years. Superimposed on these trends we identify internally driven instabilities, operating at higher frequency, conditioned by local topographic factors, tidewater dynamics and glaciological feedbacks during deglaciation. Specifically, our new evidence indicates extensive marine-terminating ice-sheet glaciation of the NW BIIS sector during Greenland Stadials 12 to 9 – prior to the main ‘Late Weichselian’ ice-sheet glaciation. After a period of restricted glaciation, in Greenland Interstadials 8 to 6, we find good evidence for rapid renewed ice-sheet build-up in NW Scotland, with the Minch ice-stream terminus reaching the continental shelf edge in Greenland Stadial 5, perhaps only briefly. Deglaciation of the NW sector took place in numerous stages. Several grounding-zone wedges and moraines on the mid- and inner continental shelf attest to significant stabilizations of the ice-sheet grounding line, or ice margin, during overall retreat in Greenland Stadials 3 and 2, and to the development of ice shelves. NW Lewis was the first substantial present-day land area to deglaciate, in the first half of Greenland Stadial 3 at a time of globally reduced sea-level c. 26 kabp , followed by Cape Wrath at c. 24 kabp. The topographic confinement of the Minch straits probably promoted ice-shelf development in early Greenland Stadial 2, providing the ice stream with additional support and buffering it somewhat from external drivers. However, c. 20–19 kabp , as the grounding-line migrated into shoreward deepening water, coinciding with a marked change in marine geology and bed strength, the ice stream became unstable. We find that, once underway, grounding-line retreat proceeded in an uninterrupted fashion with the rapid loss of fronting ice shelves – first in the west, then the east troughs – before eventual glacier stabilization at fjord mouths in NW Scotland by ~17 kabp. Around the same time, ~19–17 kabp , ice-sheet lobes readvanced into the East Minch – possibly a glaciological response to the marine-instability-triggered loss of adjacent ice stream (and/or ice shelf) support in the Minch trough. An independent ice cap on Lewis also experienced margin oscillations during mid-Greenland Stadial 2, with an ice-accumulation centre in West Lewis existing into the latter part of Heinrich Stadial 1. Final ice-sheet deglaciation of NW mainland Scotland was punctuated by at least one other coherent readvance at c. 15.5 kabp , before significant ice-mass losses thereafter. At the glacial termination, c. 14.5 kabp , glaciers fed outwash sediment to now-abandoned coastal deltas in NW mainland Scotland around the time of global Meltwater Pulse 1A. Overall, this work on the BIIS NW sector reconstructs a highly dynamic ice-sheet oscillating in extent and volume for much of the last 45 000 years. Periods of expansive ice-sheet glaciation dominated by ice-streaming were interspersed with periods of much more restricted ice-cap or tidewater/fjordic glaciation. Finally, this work indicates that the role of ice streams in ice-sheet evolution is complex but mechanistically important throughout the lifetime of an ice sheet – with ice streams contributing to the regulation of ice-sheet health but also to the acceleration of ice-sheet demise via marine ice-sheet instabilities.  相似文献   

Late Quaternary chironomid community structure shaped by rate and magnitude of climate change     

Roseanna J. Mayfield  Peter G. Langdon  C. Patrick Doncaster  John A. Dearing  Rong Wang  Gaute Velle  Kimberley L. Davies  Stephen J. Brooks 《第四纪科学杂志》2021,36(3):360-376

Much is known about how climate change impacts ecosystem richness and turnover, but we have less understanding of its influence on ecosystem structures. Here, we use ecological metrics (beta diversity, compositional disorder and network skewness) to quantify the community structural responses of temperature-sensitive chironomids (Diptera: Chironomidae) during the Late Glacial (14 700–11 700 cal a bp ) and Holocene (11 700 cal a bp to present). Analyses demonstrate high turnover (beta diversity) of chironomid composition across both epochs; however, structural metrics stayed relatively intact. Compositional disorder and skewness show greatest structural change in the Younger Dryas, following the rapid, high-magnitude climate change at the Bølling–Allerød to Younger Dryas transition. There were fewer climate-related structural changes across the early to mid–late Holocene, where climate change was more gradual and lower in magnitude. The reduced impact on structural metrics could be due to greater functional resilience provided by the wider chironomid community, or to the replacement of same functional-type taxa in the network structure. These results provide insight into how future rapid climate change may alter chironomid communities and could suggest that while turnover may remain high under a rapidly warming climate, community structural dynamics retain some resilience.  相似文献   

Unveiling buried aeolian landscapes: reconstructing a late Holocene dune environment using 3D ground-penetrating radar     

Luis Rees-Hughes  Natasha L. M. Barlow  Adam D. Booth  Landis J. West  George Tuckwell  Tim Grossey 《第四纪科学杂志》2021,36(3):377-390

Across the UK, sandy beaches and dunes protect coastal infrastructure from waves and extreme water levels during large-scale storms, while providing important habitats and recreational opportunities. Understanding their long-term evolution is vital in managing their condition in a changing climate. Recently, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) methods have grown in popularity in geomorphological applications, yielding centimetre-scale resolution images of near-surface stratigraphy and structure, thus allowing landscape evolution to be reconstructed. Additionally, abrupt changes in palaeo-environments can be visualized in three dimensions. Although often complemented by core data, GPR allows interpretations to be extended into areas with minimal ground-truth control. Nonetheless, GPR data interpretation can be non-intuitive and ambiguous, and radargrams may not initially resemble the expected subsurface geometry. Interpretation can be made yet more onerous when handling the large 3D data volumes that are facilitated with modern GPR technology. Here we describe the development of novel semi-automated GPR feature-extraction tools, based on ‘edge detection’ and ‘thresholding’ methods, which detect regions of increased GPR reflectivity which can be applied to aid in the reconstruction of a range Quaternary landscapes. Since reflectivity can be related to lithological and/or pore fluid changes, the 3D architecture of the palaeo-landscape can be reconstructed from the features extracted from a geophysical dataset. We present 500 MHz GPR data collected over a buried Holocene coastal dune system in North Wales, UK, now reclaimed for use as an airfield. Core data from the site, reaching a maximum depth 2 m, suggest rapid vertical changes from sand to silty-organic units, and GPR profiles suggest similar lateral complexity. By applying thresholding methods to GPR depth slices, these lateral complexities are effectively and automatically mapped. Furthermore, automatic extraction of the local reflection power yields a strong correlation with the depth variation of organic content, suggesting it is a cause of reflectivity contrast. GPR-interpolated analyses away from core control thus offer a powerful proxy for parameters derived from invasive core logging. The GPR data collected at Llanbedr airfield highlight a complex dune system to a depth of 2.8 m, probably deposited in several phases over ~700 years, similar to elsewhere in North Wales.  相似文献   

Geoarchaeological evidence on a Late Bronze Age earthquake,Ohrid Basin (North Macedonia)     

J. Hošek  M. Verčík  P. Pokorný  J. Beneš  V. Komárková  T. Radoměřský  N. Atanasoska  V. Todoroska  P. Ardjanliev 《第四纪科学杂志》2021,36(6):1003-1012

Geoarchaeological investigations on the northeastern shore of Lake Ohrid revealed 3.5 m thick deepwater lacustrine sediments overlying terrestrial vegetation macrofossils, worked wood and abundant potsherds dated to the Late Bronze Age (LBA). Distinct contact of deepwater sediment with the sub-aerial weathered limestone bedrock point to a sudden increase in lake level. According to radiocarbon data, catastrophic flooding occurred shortly after 1214 yr bc. Because the area is located in a highly active seismic zone, we propose that this event was caused by tectonically induced, metre-scale coseismic subsidence related to faults bordering the Ohrid alluvial plain. Moreover, this event coincides well with a dramatic switch in the habitation and settlement strategy in the region. More important, however, is the finding that the age of the proposed massive tectonic event and change in habitation lies within the interval of the proposed ‘earthquake storm’ in the eastern Mediterranean dated to 1225–1175 bc. As the Ohrid-Korça zone belongs to the same tectonic province, a relationship between the abovementioned earthquakes and the proposed event can be expected. This research therefore might provide the first direct evidence of a large-scale earthquake event linkable to the LBA collapse of Europe's first urban civilisation in the Aegean.  相似文献   

The past in dust: current trends and future directions in Pleistocene geoarcheology of European loess     

Wei Chu  Janina J. Nett 《第四纪科学杂志》2021,36(8):1279-1292

Loess is a main archive of Pleistocene landscapes and environments and therefore has an important connection to the preservation and interpretation of Paleolithic sites. In Europe, anthropogenic sites have been found in loess because of past local occupation. At one extreme, sites are well preserved with minimal disturbance often accompanied by embedded proxies to estimate ecological parameters. On the other hand, loess deposits have undergone post-depositional alterations such as weathering, pedogenesis or bioturbation due to changing environmental conditions or other disturbances that obscure anthropogenic sites. We outline the current state of research and connections between Paleolithic archeology and loess research while introducing a series of subsequent regional case studies as part of a special issue. We also make recommendations for future work to incorporate a wider variety of methods to create more robust inferences on hominin and environmental evolution and their connections.  相似文献   

A new map of glacigenic features and glacial landsystems in central mainland Nunavut,Canada     

Isabelle McMartin  Pierre-Marc Godbout  Janet E. Campbell  Tommy Tremblay  Pouran Behnia 《Boreas: An International Journal of Quaternary Research》2021,50(1):51-75

A new digital map of glacial geomorphic features and interpreted glacial landsystems was produced for an area covering ~415 000 km² in the Keewatin Sector of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) in Nunavut. The map integrates information from previous surficial geology maps and >14 000 field stations, and is significantly improved by the detailed inventory of ~152 000 glacigenic features using high-resolution ArcticDEM data and Landsat 8 imagery. From this, we identify and map coherent patterns of landform development (landsystems) between the Manitoba border and the Arctic coast, many of which are entirely new and others that are significantly modified or updated. In particular, we recognize six separate ice streams, including one probable remnant ice stream, and we delineate numerous palimpsest streamlined landscapes with associated ice-flow trends and relative ages. A continuum of relict terrains with varying basal ice thermal conditions is mapped for the first time in the ice divide migration zone between Baker Lake and Wager Bay. In addition, deglacial cold-based retreat terrains and preserved warm-based landscapes unaffected by younger glacial events have been identified. These new georeferenced, multi-scale data sets and interpreted glacial landsystems provide a comprehensive framework to strengthen reconstructions of the glacial history and dynamics of one of the largest ice domes of the LIS, identify distinct glacial sediment transport paths for applications to mineral exploration, and test numerical modelling of the LIS in support of climate change studies and long-term evolution of modern ice sheets.  相似文献   

The evolution of the terrestrial-terminating Irish Sea glacier during the last glaciation     

Richard Christopher Chiverrell  Geoff Stephen Powell Thomas  Matthew Burke  Alicia Medialdea  Rachel Smedley  Mark Bateman  Chris Clark  Geoffrey A. T. Duller  Derek Fabel  Geraint Jenkins  Xianjiao Ou  Helen Marie Roberts  James Scourse 《第四纪科学杂志》2021,36(5):752-779

Here we reconstruct the last advance to maximum limits and retreat of the Irish Sea Glacier (ISG), the only land-terminating ice lobe of the western British Irish Ice Sheet. A series of reverse bedrock slopes rendered proglacial lakes endemic, forming time-transgressive moraine- and bedrock-dammed basins that evolved with ice marginal retreat. Combining, for the first time on glacial sediments, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) bleaching profiles for cobbles with single grain and small aliquot OSL measurements on sands, has produced a coherent chronology from these heterogeneously bleached samples. This chronology constrains what is globally an early build-up of ice during late Marine Isotope Stage 3 and Greenland Stadial (GS) 5, with ice margins reaching south Lancashire by 30 ± 1.2 ka, followed by a 120-km advance at 28.3 ± 1.4 ka reaching its 26.5 ± 1.1 ka maximum extent during GS-3. Early retreat during GS-3 reflects piracy of ice sources shared with the Irish-Sea Ice Stream (ISIS), starving the ISG. With ISG retreat, an opportunistic readvance of Welsh ice during GS-2 rode over the ISG moraines occupying the space vacated, with ice margins oscillating within a substantial glacial over-deepening. Our geomorphological chronosequence shows a glacial system forced by climate but mediated by piracy of ice sources shared with the ISIS, changing flow regimes and fronting environments.  相似文献