Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T02:02:37.312Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A striated, far travelled clast of rhyolitic tuff from Thames river deposits at Ardleigh, Essex, England: evidence for early Middle Pleistocene glaciation in the Thames catchment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2014

J. Rose ,
J.N. Carney ,
B.N. Silva  and
S.J. Booth
J. Rose*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK
J.N. Carney
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK
B.N. Silva
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK
S.J. Booth
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK
*
Email: j.rose@rhul.ac.uk and jrose@dircon.co.uk.

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This paper reports the discovery of an in-situ striated, far-travelled, oversized clast in the Ardleigh Gravels of the Kesgrave Sands and Gravels of the River Thames at Ardleigh, east of Colchester in Essex, eastern England. The morphology, petrography and geochemistry of the clast, and the sedimentology of the host deposit are described. The striations are interpreted, on the basis of their sub-parallelism and the shape and sub-roundedness of the clast, as glacial and the clast is provenanced to Ordovician rocks of the Llŷn and Snowdonia regions of North Wales. On the basis of clast frequency within the Colchester Formation gravels of the Kesgrave Sands and Gravels it is inferred that glaciers reached the Cotswold region of the Thames catchment. Floe-ice transport during spring flood is invoked for movement from the glaciated region to eastern England. The paper discusses the possible age of the glaciation and recognises that it is difficult to be more precise than a cold stage in the early Middle Pleistocene (MIS 18, 16 or 14). Attention is drawn to the possibility of glaciation associated with a diamicton in the region of the Cotswold Hills known as the Bruern Till, but stresses the need for new work on this deposit.

Keywords

Early Middle Pleistocene (MIS 18-14) glaciationWelsh sourced glaciationoversized far-travelled clastOrdovician rhyolitic vitric tufffloe-ice transport
Type
Research Article
Information
Netherlands Journal of Geosciences , Volume 89 , Issue 2 , September 2010 , pp. 137 - 146
Copyright
Copyright © Stichting Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 2010

References

Allen, P., 1983. Middle Pleistocene stratigraphy and landform development in southeast Suffolk. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of London, 506 pp.Google Scholar
Allen, P., Cheshire, D.A. & Whiteman, C.A., 1991. The tills of southern East Anglia. In: Ehlers, J., Gibbard, P.L. & Rose, J. (eds): Glacial Deposits in Great Britain and Ireland. Balkema (Rotterdam): 255–278.Google Scholar
Bassinot, F.C., Labeyrie, I.D., Vincent, V., Quidelleur, X., Shackleton, N.J. & Lancelot, Y., 1994. The astronomical theory of climate and the age of the Brunhes-Matuyama magnetic reversal. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 126: 91–108.Google Scholar
Bevins, R.E., Lees, G.J. & Roach, R.A., 1991. Ordovician bimodal volcanism in SW Wales: geochemical evidence for petrogenesis of the silicic rocks. Journal of the Geological Society (London) 148: 719–729.Google Scholar
Bowen, D.Q. (ed.), 1999. A revised correlation of Quaternary deposits in the British Isles. The Geological Society Special Report No 23 (London), 174 pp.Google Scholar
Bridgland, D.R., 1994. Quaternary of the Thames. Chapman and Hall (London), 441 pp.Google Scholar
Bridgland, D.R., 2006. The Middle and Upper Pleistocene sequence in the Lower Thames: a record of Milankovitch climatic fluctuation and early human occupation of southern Britian. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 117: 281–305.Google Scholar
Bridgland, D.R. & Allen, P., 1996. A revised model for terrace formation and its significance for the early Middle Pleistocene terrace aggradations of northeast Essex, England. In: Turner, C. (ed.): The Early Middle Pleistocene in Europe. Balkema (Rotterdam): 121–134.Google Scholar
Bridgland, D.R. & Schreve, D.C., 2001. River terrace formation in synchrony with long-term climatic fluctuation: examples from SE England. In: Maddy, D., Macklin, M. & Woodward, J. (eds): River Basin Sediment Systems: Archives of Environmental Change. Balkema (Rotterdam): 229–248.Google Scholar
Bridgland, D.R. & Schreve, D.C., 2004. Quaternary lithostratigraphy and mammalian biostratigraphy of the Lower Thames terrace system, south-east England. Quaternaire 15: 29–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, C.D., Gibbard, P.L. & Rose, J., 2004. Pleistocene glacial limits in England, Scotland and Wales. In: Ehlers, J. & Gibbard, P.L. (eds): Pleistocene Glacial Limits, Volume 1. Elsevier (Amsterdam): 47–82.Google Scholar
Clark, P.U., Archer, D., Pollard, D., Blum, J.D., Rial, J.A., Brovkin, V., Mix., A.C., Pisias, N.G. & Roy, M., 2006. The Middle Pleistocene Transition: characteristics, mechanisms, and implications for long term changes in atmospheric pCO2 . Quaternary Science Reviews: 3150–3184.Google Scholar
French, H.M., 1996. The Periglacial Environment (2nd Edition). Longman, Harlow.Google Scholar
Gibbard, P.L., 1977. Pleistocene history of the Vale of St. Albans. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B280: 445–483.Google Scholar
Gibbard, P.L., 1988. The history of the great Northwest European rivers during the past three million years. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B318: 559–602.Google Scholar
Gibbons, W. & Young, T.P., 1999. Mid-Caradoc magmatism in central Llyn, rhyolite petrogenesis and the evolution of the Snowdonia volcanic corridor in NW Wales. Journal of the Geological Society of London 156: 301–316.Google Scholar
Hamblin, R.J.O, Moorlock, B.S.P. & Rose, J., 2000. A New Glacial Stratigraphy for Eastern England. Quaternary Newsletter 92: 35–43.Google Scholar
Hamblin, R.J.O., Moorlock, B.S.P., Rose, J., Lee, J.R., Riding, J.B., Booth, S.J. & Pawley, S.M., 2005. Revised pre-Devensian glacial stratigraphy in Norfolk, England. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 84: 77–85.Google Scholar
Hey, R.W., 1976. Provenance of far travelled pebbles in the pre-Anglian Pleistocene of East Anglia. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 87: 69–82.Google Scholar
Hey, R.W., 1986. A re-examination of the Northern Drift of Oxfordshire. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 97: 291–301.Google Scholar
Hey, R.W. & Brenchley, P.J., 1977. Volcanic pebbles from the Pleistocene gravels in Norfolk and Essex. Geological Magazine 114: 219–225.Google Scholar
Hey, R.W., Krinsley, D.H. & Hyde, P.J.W., 1971. Surface textures of sand grains from the Hertfordshire pebble beds. Geological Magazine 108: 377–382.Google Scholar
Le Bas, M.J. & Streckeisen, A.L., 1991. The IUGS systematics of igneous rocks. Journal of the Geological Society 148: 825–833.Google Scholar
Lee, J.R., Rose, J., Hamblin, J.O. & Moorlock, B.S.P., 2004. Dating the earliest lowland glaciation of eastern England: a pre-MIS 12 early Middle Pleistocene Happisburgh Glaciation. Quaternary Science Reviews 23: 1551–1566.Google Scholar
Leeder, M.R., 2008. Tectonics, surface uplift and river incision: general models, case histories and applications to East Anglia and southern England. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Norfolk 58: 3–36.Google Scholar
Maher, B.A. & Hallam, D.F., 2005. Palaeomagnetic correlation and dating of Plio/Pleistocene sediments at the southern margins of the North Sea Basin. Journal of Quaternary Science 20: 67–77.Google Scholar
Martini, I.P., Kwong, J.K. & Sadura, S., 1993. Sediment ice rafting and cold climate fluvial deposits: Albany River, Ontario, Canada. Special Publication of the International Association of Sedimentologists 17: 63–76 Google Scholar
Menzies, J. & Shilts, W.W., 1996. Subglacial environments. In: Menzies, J. (ed.): Past Glacial Environments: Sediments, Forms and Techniques. Butterworth-Heinemann (Oxford): 15–136.Google Scholar
Millward, D., Marriner, G.F. & Beddoe-Stephens, B., 2000. The Eycott Volcanic Group, an Ordovician continental margin andesite suite in the English Lake District. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 53: 81–96.Google Scholar
Penkman, K.E.H., Kaufman, D.S., Maddy, D. & Collins, M.J., 2008. Closed-system behaviour of the intra-crystalline fraction of amino acids in mollusc shells. Quaternary Geochronology 3: 2–25.Google Scholar
Preece, R.C. & Parfitt, S.A., 2000. The Cromer Forest-bed Formation: new thoughts on an old problem. In: Lewis, S.G., Whiteman, C.A. & Preece, R.C. (eds): The Quaternary of Norfolk and Suffolk, Field Guide. Quaternary Research Association (London): 29–34.Google Scholar
Preece, R.C. & Parfitt, S.A., 2008. The Cromer Forest-bed Formation: some recent developments relating to early human occupation and lowland glaciation. In: Candy, I., Lee, J.R. & Harrison, A.M. (eds): The Quaternary of northern East Anglia, Field Guide. Quaternary Research Association (London): 60–83.Google Scholar
Preece, R.C., Parfitt, S.A., Coope, G.R., Penkman, K.E.H., Ponel, P. & Whittaker, J.E., 2009. Biostratigraphic and aminostratigraphic constraints on the age of the Middle Pleistocene glacial succession in north Norfolk UK. Journal of Quaternary Science 24: 557–580.Google Scholar
Rose, J., 2009. Early and Middle Pleistocene landscapes of eastern England. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 120: 3–33.Google Scholar
Rose, J., 2010. The Quaternary of the British Isles: factors forcing environmental change. Journal of Quaternary Science 25: 399–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, J., Allen, P. & Hey, R.W., 1976. Middle Pleistocene stratigraphy in southern East Anglia. Nature, 263: 492–494.Google Scholar
Rose, J., Moorlock, B.S.P. & Hamblin, R.J.O., 2001. Pre-Anglian fluvial and coastal deposits in Eastern England: lithostratigraphy and palaeoenvironments. Quaternary International 79: 5–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, J., Whiteman, C.A., Allen, P. & Kemp, R.A., 1999. The Kesgrave sands and gravels: ‘pre-glacial’ Quaternary deposits of the River Thames in East Anglia and the Thames Valley. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 110: 93–116.Google Scholar
Thorpe, R.S., 1972. The geochemistry and correlation of the Warren House, the Uriconian and the Charnian volcanic rocks from the English Pre-cambrian. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 83: 269–285.Google Scholar
Thorpe, R.S., Leat, P.T., Mann, A.C., Howells, M.F., Reedman, A.J. & Campbell, S.D.G., 1993. Magmatic evolution of the Ordovician Snowdon Volcanic Centre, North Wales (UK). Journal of Petrology 34: 711–714.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westaway, R., 2009. Quaternary vertical crustal motion and drainage evolution in East Anglia and adjoining parts of southern England: chronology of the Ingham River terrace deposits. Boreas 38: 261–284.Google Scholar
Westaway, R. Maddy, D. & Bridgland, D., 2002. Flow in the lower continental crust as a mechanism for the Quaternary uplift of south-east England: constraints from the Thames terrace record. Quaternary Science Reviews 21: 559–603.Google Scholar
Whalley, W.B., 1996. Scanning electron microscopy. In: Menzies, J. (ed.): Past Glacial Environments: sediments forms and techniques. Butterworth-Heinemann: 357–375.Google Scholar
Whiteman, C.A., 1990. Early and Middle Pleistocene stratigraphy in central Essex, England. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of London.Google Scholar
Whiteman, C.A., 1992. The palaeogeography and correlation of pre-Anglian Glaciation terraces of the river Thames in Essex and the London Basin. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 103: 37–56.Google Scholar
Whiteman, C.A. & Rose, J., 1992. Thames river sediments of the British Early and Middle Pleistocene. Quaternary Science Reviews 11: 363–375.Google Scholar