The origin and age of coversand in north Lincolnshire, UK

Abstract

Coversand deposits are prevalent across much of central and eastern continental Europe as distinct sedimentary units, but in comparison UK coversands are fragmented and relatively thin. Arguably the best exposures of UK coversands are to be found in northern Lincolnshire, west of the Lincolnshire Wolds, where there are extensive coversand deposits up to 7 m thick. Stratigraphic, sedimentological, geomorphological and biological evidence show that the Lincolnshire coversand is composed predominantly of a cold climate aeolian sandsheet. The same evidence also indicates provenance and westerly palaeowinds associated with coversand deposition. For the first time, through the application of both thermoluminescence and radiocarbon dating, a good chronological framework for coversand deposition in Lincolnshire has been established. This shows the main phase of coversand deposition took place between c. 12,500 to 11,400 calendar years ago during the Younger Dryas climatic oscillation. The north Lincolnshire coversands are therefore contemporary with the Younger Coversands found in The Netherlands and Denmark. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Quaternary coversands of southwest France

“…10 with those dates published for the Netherlands (Bateman and Van Huissteden, 1999;Schokker et al, 2005;Kasse et al, 2007;Vandenberghe et al, 2004Vandenberghe et al, , 2013, Great Britain (Bateman, 1995(Bateman, , 1998Clarke et al, 2001;Murton et al, 2003), and Portugal Thomas et al, 2008) (Fig. 10).…”

“…Widespread sand deposits of the Late Weichselian and Lateglacial age are documented in the Netherlands ( Van der Hammen and Maarveld, 1952;Dücker and Maarveld, 1957;Van der Hammen and Wijmstra, 1971a, b;Vandenberghe, 1991Vandenberghe, , 1993Kasse, 1999Kasse, , 2002Van Huissteden et al, 2000;Vandenberghe and Kasse, 2008), Belgium (De Moor and Heyse, 1978;De Moor, 1981;Paulissen and Munaut, 1969;Vandenberghe and Gullentops, 1977;Vandenberghe, 1983) Germany (Koster, 1988;Schwan, 1986Schwan, , 1988, Poland (Kozarski, 1990;Kozarski and Nowaczyk, 1991;Manikowska, 1991), Denmark (Kolstrup, 1982(Kolstrup, , 1991Kolstrup et al, 2007), Sweden and Finland (Van Vliet-Lano€ e et al, 1993;Sepp€ al€ a, 1995;K€ ayhk€ o et al, 1999). Patchy coversands are also found in England (Catt, 1977;Bateman, 1995Bateman, , 1998 and northwest France (Lautridou, 1985;Antoine et al, 2003). The main lithofacies have been described (Ruegg, 1983;Schwan, 1986Schwan, , 1988Kasse, 1999Kasse, , 2002 and a chronostratigraphic framework has been established based on radiocarbon and luminescence ages ( Van der Hammen and Wijmstra, 1971a,b;Van Geel et al, 1989;…”

Age limits on Middle Pleistocene glacial sediments from OSL dating, north Norfolk, UK

“…Previous applications of luminescence dating in the region have been limited to a small number of TL measurements (Lewis, 1998;West et al, 1999), or OSL and TL dating of Late Pleistocene coversand deposits (Bateman, 1995(Bateman, , 1998Clarke et al, 2001). However, more recent developments in OSL measurement protocols (Murray and Roberts, 1998;Wintle, 2000, 2003) along with rigorous testing of the technique (Murray and Olley, 2002;Murray and Funder, 2003) have indicated much potential for the extension of OSL dating into the Middle Pleistocene timescale.…”

Weichselian Late Pleniglacial surface winds over northwest and central Europe: a model–data comparison

“…More recently it has become possible to date aeolian sediments reliably with optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating (e.g. Bateman, 1995Bateman, , 1998Radtke and Janotta, 1998;Bateman and Van Huissteden, 1999;Vandenberghe et al, 2004;Koster, 2005). However, many uncertainties about the nature of LP surface winds remain.…”