Sediments of the Tay Estuary. VI. Sediments of the lower and outer reaches

1980 ◽  
Vol 78 (3-4) ◽  
pp. s133-s153
Author(s):  
J. McManus ◽  
A. T. Buller ◽  
C. D. Green
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Short Time Scale ◽  
Size Frequency Distribution ◽  
The North ◽  
Constant State ◽  
Repeated Sampling ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Marine Clays

SynopsisThe main channels converge at Dundee and form a single outlet passing seawards of the Broughty Ferry-Tayport constriction. The coarsest sediments, often of gravels and shell debris, line the floor of the channel, which is locally cut into late-glacial marine clays. Extensive sandy tidal flats seaward of the constriction pass eastwards into dune-covered sand spits pointing into the North Sea. The entrance bar has a delta-like form which is slowly overriding the fine sands of the North Sea floor.The median, sorting, and skewness of the sediments, and the covariation of several parameters follow patterns readily related to the physiographic features of the estuary.Many of the beach and tidal flat areas are in a constant state of change, and repeated topographic surveying reveals the magnitude of these changes on a short time scale. The changes in sediment characteristics demonstrated by repeated sampling and analysis of material from one stretch of Broughty Ferry beach are substantial. Size-frequency distribution plots indicate that up to four sub-populations of grains are present. Natural combinations of these in different proportions produce systematic variations in values of the normally used sediment characterising statistics.

The sea as a dynamic and hybrid landscape

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Van de Noort
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of Research ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Dynamic Landscape ◽  
History Of ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
The 19Th Century

Since the last glacial maximum, some 22,000 years ago, the North Sea basin has undergone many transformational changes. Largely covered by ice at the beginning of the period, it became successively an arctic-like tundra, a ‘park-like’ landscape of extended grassland with shrubs and trees, a tundra again, and a plain with light woodland cover that was submerged eventually by the expanding North Sea (Coles 1998: 69–75). As the North Sea rose, over the last 5,000 years, to within a few metres of its current level, the interior of the sea did not alter significantly apart from changes in tidal patterns and depth. But on the periphery of the North Sea basin, the slighter sea-level changes added to the effects of marine and alluvial sedimentation and erosion and produced, regionally, periods of marine transgression—when the influence of the sea moved landwards—and marine regression, resulting in the opposite effect. The North Sea, throughout its history, has been the dynamic landscape par excellence. The history of research into the North Sea basin goes back to the 19th century, and will be discussed further below, but it was Bryony Coles’ article ‘Doggerland: a speculative survey’ (1998), which first raised the profile of the Late-glacial and early Holocene archaeology of the North Sea and inspired many of the current research activities, especially those relating to the southern North Sea basin. The renewed interest in the Mesolithic and Neolithic archaeology of the North Sea has made some significant advances, and holds the promise of even greater returns once the high-resolution reconstructions of the North Sea Plain are integrated with the archaeological finds. A series of publications has recently presented new archaeological sites. New finds from trawler fishing along the various banks in the North Sea, and from the margins (e.g. Flemming 2004; Waddington and Pedersen 2007), as well as the use of SCUBA technology (e.g. in Fisher 1995), will be discussed below. This chapter offers brief overviews of the history of North Sea research, the creation of the North Sea, and the archaeological evidence of human activity in the period from about 10,000 to 2000 cal bc.

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