• Corpus ID: 201928003

REGIONAL CLIMATIC VERSUS LOCAL CONTROLS ON PERIGLACIAL SLOPE DEPOSITION : A CASE STUDY FROM WEST CORNWALL

@inproceedings{J2005REGIONALCV,
  title={REGIONAL CLIMATIC VERSUS LOCAL CONTROLS ON PERIGLACIAL SLOPE DEPOSITION : A CASE STUDY FROM WEST CORNWALL},
  author={J. and Knight},
  year={2005}
}

• J., Knight
• Published 2005
• Environmental Science, Geography, Geology

In contrast with much of the British Isles, south-west England was likely not glaciated during the Quaternary era (last 1.8 Ma) (Stephens, 1970; Bowen et al., 1986; Scourse, 1996; Cullingford, 1998; Clark et al., 2004). Although, therefore, unaffected directly by the sediment generation and erosion processes associated with glacial action, this also meant that it was unaffected by the presence of regional stratigraphic unconformities, formed during ice advance, which have the unfortunate effect of truncating the sediment record (Croot and Griffiths, 2001). South-west England is therefore of interest because its non-glacigenic Quaternary record potentially extends back farther in time than in other parts of the British Isles, and may therefore provide a more detailed record of climatic and environmental changes over (parts of) this time interval (Bates et al., 2003). These sediments also have a generally high preservation potential due both to the absence of glacial erosion, and the presence of rock-bounded basins (often related to river incision, particularly in lowland areas) which provide ideal sediment depocentres (Cullingford, 1998; Croot and Griffiths, 2001; Bates et al., 2003). Quaternary-age sediments found on these coastal lowlands and in rock-bounded basins include wind-blown, beach and shallow-marine sands, beach gravels, and cold-climate (likely periglacial) slope deposits, generically termed ‘head’ (Harris, 1987, 1998; Ballantyne and Harris, 1994). In south-west England, the bedrock platforms upon which all these sediments are built likely extend back to at least the interglacial of marine oxygen isotope stage 9 at c. 340 kyr BP (Bowen, 1994; Scourse and Furze, 2001; Bates et al., 2003). Although the overlying sediments, therefore, potentially cover a wide time span, they are also likely characterised by significant depositional hiatuses and erosional truncations. These limit the potential for entire sediment sequences to be either correlated between different locations, or to be a continuous record of climate, although parts of these sediment sequences may be useful lithostratigraphically.