Organic and soil material between tills in east‐midland England – direct evidence for two episodes of lowland glaciation in Britain during the Middle Pleistocene

Abstract

This paper provides a record and analysis of a site in east‐midland England, at which organic and soil material are found between two Middle Pleistocene tills. This is the first discovery of its kind in the area, and demonstrates unequivocally that the region was glaciated on two separate occasions, something that has long been inferred and articulated, but not actually demonstrated. The landforms, sediments and soils are studied with respect to their geomorphological, lithological, pedological, palaeobotanical and structural properties. The organic and soil material along with soil structures indicate, sequentially, a periglacial climate, a long period of warm temperate weathering and a cool temperate climate. Evaluation of this evidence in terms of existing published work identifies a number of problems with existing models and suggests that the most likely model for the glacial history of this part of midland England is an early Middle Pleistocene glaciation which is represented only by trace erratics, a Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 12 age glaciation which moved across the area from the NW and deposited a chalk‐free till, and an MIS 8 age glaciation that transported and deposited an upper chalky till from the NE. © 2021 The Authors. Journal of Quaternary Science Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Palaeoenvironmental history of the Middle Pleistocene deposits at Gilson, Warwickshire, England: part of the High Speed Two railway route alignment

“…Following the temperate period, early in the Wolstonian Stage (NB the Early Wolstonian (=Early Saalian) Substage) saw the Gilson Clayey Sand infill the basin and surrounding the site, incision by the rivers Tame, Cole and Blythe, occurred throughout much of the Wolstonian Stage, cause slope instability and downcutting to create the modern interfluve surrounding the Gilson site. Whether the cold‐climate Gilson Sand and Gravel were deposited under full‐glacial conditions, either during Middle Wolstonian Substage (MIS 8 glaciation) (White et al, 2017; Rose et al, 2021) or the Moreton Stadial of the Late Wolstonian Substage (Gibson et al, 2022), the implication of the Gilson sequence here is that the biostratigraphy provides an important independent stratigraphic marker for the Wolstonian Stage during the British Middle Pleistocene. There is unequivocal evidence for Hoxnian interglacial Stage deposits (both at the Quinton and Nechells sites, and now importantly at Gilson), underlain by Anglian Stage and overlain by Wolstonian Stage (NB the Early Wolstonian Substage) glacigenic sediments.…”

The forensic utility of reworked geological materials in soil

“…If palynomorphs extracted from a till are from distinctive lithostratigraphical units, as determined from biostratigraphy, the flow path of the glacier can be reconstructed (e.g. Lee et al, 2002;Davies et al, 2009;Powell et al, 2016;Rose et al, 2021 for Quaternary glacigenic sediments). Similarly, Harding et al (2004) used dinoflagellate cysts and other marine palynomorphs to help determine the provenance of flint artefacts from the UK.…”