Late Pleistocene deposits at Block Fen,Cambridgeshire, England |
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| Authors: | R G West S M Peglar M E Pettit R C Preece |
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| Abstract: | 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. |
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| Keywords: | Late Pleistocene Ipswichian and Devensian Stages pollen and plant macro-analysis molluscs sea-level changes Fenland |
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