A new chronological framework for Middle and Upper Pleistocene landscape evolution in the Sussex/Hampshire Coastal Corridor, UK

Bates, M.R. and Briant, Rebecca M. and Rhodes, E.J. and Schwenninger, J.L. and Whittaker, J.E. (2010) A new chronological framework for Middle and Upper Pleistocene landscape evolution in the Sussex/Hampshire Coastal Corridor, UK. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 121 (4), pp. 369-392. ISSN 0016-7878.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pgeola.2010.02.004

Abstract

The unique Middle and Late Pleistocene sedimentary record preserved along the Sussex/Hampshire Coastal Corridor between Romsey and Brighton contains a wealth of deposits including highstand marine sediments associated with a variety of different aged beaches, fluvial sediments associated with rivers crossing the coastal plain and cold stage deposits accumulating above the marine and fluvial sediments. Although quarrying activity has been extensive across much of the area it has been undertaken in flooded workings due to the high level of the watertable. Consequently little is known in detail about the sequences except where they outcrop on the foreshore around the coast. This paper examines recent work from the lower coastal plain using a multi-disciplinary approach these deposits to elucidate the age of the sequences and their associated environments of deposition. OSL dates from two of the beaches, the Aldingbourne and Brighton/Norton Beaches, place both within MIS 7. Although these OSL dates cannot differentiate between sub-stages within MIS 7, coupling these results with inferences from local geography, lithology and contained microfossils it is clear that the beaches belong to two different phases within MIS 7. These two beaches are clearly divided by a major phase of erosion and downcutting associated with a fall in sea-level. Fluvial sediments from Solent Terrace 2 and Arun Terrace 4 also date within MIS 7 and are tentatively ascribed to the downcutting event between the beaches. Together this information allows us to propose, for the first time, a robust independently dated framework for the lower parts of the coastal plain integrating for the first time the marine and terrestrial record.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
Keyword(s) / Subject(s):	Middle/Upper Pleistocene, raised beaches, fluvial sequences, Foraminifera, Ostracoda, non-analogue faunas, OSL dating, palaeogeography, MIS 7
School:	Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Administrator
Date Deposited:	15 Feb 2011 12:25
Last Modified:	02 Aug 2023 16:54
URI:	https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/3061

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