Late glacial and Holocene sand drift in northern Götaland and Värmland, Sweden: sediments and ages

Abstract

The aeolian deposits of Sweden have received modest attention, despite their usefulness as a palaeoenvironmental archive. Here we present sedimentological information and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages from inland sand dunes in the lowlands of south-central Sweden. Three main lithofacies, each with two subfacies, were identified in the deposits: massive sand, laminated sand and crossbedded sand. Massive sand was most common and present at all sites, and is largely due to secondary bioturbation when found close to the surface. Other prevalent depositional processes are wind-ripple migration and grain flow. Secondary features include animal burrows and tracks, root traces, infiltration structures and soil profiles. The luminescence ages plot in two different groups, centred in the early and late Holocene, respectively. The primary dune-forming phase occurred in the early Holocene, after local deglaciation and uplift above sea/lake level. However, at some sites, OSL ages suggest a prolonged phase of sand drift, or repeated reworking, long after deglaciation due to locally beneficial conditions. The late Holocene was dominated by reactivation events and sheet sand deposition, which led to the formation of an aeolian mantle.

Sand dunes and valley fills from Preboreal glacial‐lake outburst floods in south‐eastern Norway – beyond the aeolian paradigm

“…In some cases, such dunes could possibly be the only evidence of former glacier‐dammed basins and their drainage. For example, several sand dunes occur in close association with eskers (Seppälä, ; Alexanderson & Bernhardson, ) and could, in line with the present findings, potentially be expansion dunes formed in the extension of supercritical flows from collapsing ice‐delimited reservoirs or meltwater conduits. Also, a solitary, up to 1 km long and 30 m wide, curved sand ridge on the floor of a fjord valley in northern Norway was previously interpreted as aeolian (Fig.…”

“…Sand dunes in central Sweden contain pipe-like structures interpreted as onshore bioturbation (e.g. Alexanderson et al, 2016;Bernhardson & Alexanderson, 2018;Alexanderson & Bernhardson, 2019). Aeolian dune fields have also been reported from comparable settings in northern Sweden and Finland (Sepp€ al€ a, 2004).…”

Palaeosols and their cover sediments of a glacial landscape in northern central Europe: Spatial distribution, pedostratigraphy and evidence on landscape evolution

“…Other mid-to north European regions show far more Holocene aeolian activity periods associated with climatic or human impact (e.g. Tolksdorf and Kaiser, 2012;Dobrotin et al, 2013;Sevink et al, 2018;Pierik et al, 2018;Alexanderson and Bernhardson, 2019;Jonczak et al, 2019;van Mourik and van der Meer, 2019). Although human settlement is proven for the Serrahn area since the Neolithic (immediately outside the National Park area) and the Bronze Age (inside; Supplement 1), a close relationship of potential land use (land degradation) and aeolian dynamics could not be proven here thus far except for the last c. 800 years.…”

Transferring Grains from Single-Grain Luminescence Discs to SEM Specimen Stubs

“…The grains used for the transfer were of quartz in the 180-250 µm grain size fraction. The grains were extracted from Late Quaternary sediments from four sites in Sweden and Norway (Table 1) according to procedures described in [9]. Find a container of appropriate size with a lid.…”