Late-Holocene sand invasion and North Atlantic storminess along the Aquitaine Coast, southwest France

Abstract

Holocene forested coastal dunes of different morphology fringe the Atlantic coast of southwest Aquitaine. Infra-red stimulated luminescence (IRSL) dating has been applied to sands from these dunes in the Aquitaine region in order to test the validity of dune-classification theories. The ages obtained from the dunes show three phases of sand invasion and dune development during the late Holocene: 3000-4000 years ago; 900-1300 years ago; 250-550 years ago. The timing of the most recent phase of sand mobilization. as dated by IRSL, is supported by historical maps and records from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries AD, showing problems for human settlement in the region and village abandonment due to dune drift. Sand invasion is driven by an increase in frequency of severe storms in the North Atlantic associated with the cooler periods of the ‘Little Ice Age’ and early 'Mediaeval Warm Period'. The dunes emplaced 900-1300 years ago were naturally fixed by a mixed deciduous and maritime pine forest during the latter part of the 'Mediaeval Warm Period'.

Morphodynamics of beach/dune systems: examples from the coast of France

“…On west European coasts, dating of late Holocene sand sequences shows a significant agreement with reported wind intensification and sand mobilisation during and after the cooler period of the 'Little Ice Age' (Wintle et al, 1998;Orford et al, 2000;Clarke et al, 2002). Today the dune is in retreat.…”

The termination of the last major phase of aeolian sand movement, coastal dunefields, Denmark

“…Polar water and sea-ice were carried far southwards in the North Atlantic (Bond et al, 1997) and northwestern Europe was struck by a number of severe storms (e.g. Lamb, 1988;Clarke et al, 2002: Sommerville et al, 2003. The increased storminess was probably related to an increased thermal gradient in the North Atlantic causing an increased number of deep cyclones to pass over northwestern Europe.…”

“…The most recent phase of coastal dune building in northwest Europe typically ended 100-200 years ago as documented by historical records and a growing number of luminescence dates (e.g. Wison et al, 2001Wison et al, , 2004Clarke et al, 2002). In this paper we will document the chronology of the termination phase of this last episode of major sand movement and dune building in Denmark.…”

“…Klijn, 1990). The formation of these coastal dunefields has been documented in a number of papers and it has become clear that sand mobilization and dune building typically took place during cool and stormy periods (Pye and Neal, 1993;Clemmensen et al, 2001a;Wilson et al, 2001Wilson et al, , 2004Clarke et al, 2002;Dawson et al, 2004). The most recent phase of coastal dune building in northwest Europe typically ended 100-200 years ago as documented by historical records and a growing number of luminescence dates (e.g.…”

Climate control on late Holocene high-energy sedimentation along coasts of the northeastern Atlantic Ocean

“…Onshore, HSPs are associated with the widespread formation of massive aeolian dune fields and coversands stretching along the coasts of western Europe (Alexanderson and Bernhardson, 2016;Bateman and Godby, 2004;Clarke et al, 2002;Clarke and Rendell, 2006;Clemmensen et al, 1996;Clemmensen and Murray, 2006;Clemmensen et al, 2009;Costas et al, 2013Costas et al, , 2012Costas et al, , 2016Gilbertson et al, 1999;Jelgersma et al, 1995;Nielsen et al, 2016;Sommerville et al, 2007;van Vliet-Lanoë et al, 2016;Wilson and Braley, 1997;Wilson et al, 2004), also recorded as the deposition of thin windblown quartz layers over soils (Jackson et al, 2005) and peat bogs (Björck and Clemmensen, 2004;de Jong et al, 2006de Jong et al, , 2007Kylander et al, 2016;Orme et al, 2015Orme et al, , 2016Sjögren, 2009;Tisdall et al, 2013). Aeolian activity was initiated during the last glacial termination (Costas et al, 2016) that gave rise to the periglacial "European Sand Belt" (Zeeberg, 2008), the most recent phase of dune formation being the LIA.…”