Lateglacial and Holocene relative sea‐level changes and first evidence for the Storegga tsunami in Sutherland, Scotland

Long, Antony J.; Barlow, Natasha; Dawson, Sue; Innés, James B.; Kelham, Catherine; Milne, F.; Dawson, Alastair

doi:10.1002/jqs.2862

Cited by 29 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…2014; Long et al . 2016), along with the extrapolated rates from numerous other locations (e.g., Shennan & Horton 2002), show sea level during the last 2000 years around Scotland has generally been falling or has been near stable. This relative stability provided an opportunity for the development of coastal sand dune systems, in particular associated with the cooling and increased storminess of the Little Ice Age (Gilbertson et al .…”

Section: Relative Sea Level Changes During the Last 2000 Yearsmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…1), Long et al . (2016) traced the RSL rise in the Middle and Late Holocene to reach c. 1 m OD between 7 ka and 3 ka BP, before falling to present levels. They identified evidence of transgressive overlaps after the peak of Holocene RSL rise in the area, but maintained that local coastal processes may have been responsible for these later events, and hence were unable to correlate the evidence from Loch Eriboll with the evidence from Wick River valley to the E. They argued that RSL change was broadly similar across the N coast of Scotland, implying similar ice loading across that area.…”

Section: Late Devensian and Holocene Relative Sea Levels Before 2000 Bpmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(1988). Since 1993, new sites have been found at the Dornoch Firth (Smith et al 1992; Firth et al 1995; Shi 1995), Wick River valley (Dawson & Smith 1997), Strath Halladale (Dawson & Smith 2000), Shetland (Bondevik et al 2003), Cocklemill Burn, Fife (Tooley & Smith 2005) and Loch Eriboll, Sutherland (Long et al 2016). In 2004, Smith et al (2004) reviewed the evidence from 32 sites in Scotland and NE England, showing that the tsunami had affected coastal areas in Shetland and in northern, northeastern and southeastern Scotland, with sediment run-up values of over 9 m at some locations on mainland Scottish coasts.…”

Section: Extreme Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(2010), Selby & Smith (2015) and Long et al . (2016). The sites on Harris and at Talisker Bay are unconfirmed at present.

Figure 19RSL graph for the Ythan estuary, showing the change in RSL thought to mark the impact of the Lake Agassiz–Ojibway flood, with the age of the Holocene Storegga Slide tsunami from sediments in the estuary area.…”

Section: Extreme Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Quaternary sea level change in Scotland

Smith¹,

Barlow²,

Bradley³

et al. 2018

Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Socie

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Section: Relative Sea Level Changes During the Last 2000 Yearsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Late Devensian and Holocene Relative Sea Levels Before 2000 Bpmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Extreme Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(2010), Selby & Smith (2015) and Long et al . (2016). The sites on Harris and at Talisker Bay are unconfirmed at present.

Section: Extreme Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Quaternary sea level change in Scotland

Smith¹,

Barlow²,

Bradley³

et al. 2018

Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Socie

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show abstract

“…Geological evidence can be traced from Norway to Greenland, western Scotland, NE England and Denmark (e.g. Bondevik et al 2005a;Long et al 2016;Smith et al 2004). The effects of this tsunami on the Mesolithic forager populations of western and eastern Scotland were immediate and long-lasting (Waddington and Wicks 2017;Wicks and Mithen 2014).…”

Section: Mass Burials In Relatively Tectonically Inactive Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prehistoric Coastal Mass Burials: Did Death Come in Waves?

Cain

Goff

McFadgen

2018

J Archaeol Method Theory

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Recent large tsunamis in the twenty-first century have provided graphic reminders of the catastrophic impacts such natural hazards can have upon coastal communities. Death tolls in the thousands give rise to the rapid adoption of coastal mass burials for the interment of the dead. While recognised as a necessary practice in the aftermath of such contemporary tragedies, the paucity of coastal mass burial sites related to earlier tsunamis reported in the archaeological record is unusual. We establish a suite of criteria for identifying the geological and archaeological evidence of inundation by past tsunamis and review case studies from two well-documented prehistoric coastal mass burial sites in the Southern Hemisphere (Solomon Islands and Vanuatu). To varying degrees, both sites possess numerous characteristics that suggest direct correlation with previously reported catastrophic palaeotsunamis. In the Northern Hemisphere, we investigate palaeotsunami inundation as an alternative hypothesis for mass burial sites in Orkney and Shetland, a relatively tectonically inactive region where such an association is unlikely to have ever been considered. The nature, chronology and location of these mass burial sites fit well with the proposed archaeological evidence for palaeotsunami inundation, and they also appear to be contemporaneous with the as-yet poorly documented Garth tsunami (~5500 years BP). We suggest that a potentially key diagnostic criterion for determining a palaeotsunami linkage is the use of diatom testing on skeletal remains to establish whether death was caused by drowning in saltwater, a test which has never been applied in this context. J Archaeol Method Theory

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Resolving tsunami wave dynamics: Integrating sedimentology and numerical modelling

Hill,

Rush,

Peakall

et al. 2023

The Depositional Record

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Tsunamis are a major hazard along many of the world's coastlines. To understand the impact of these events, a sufficiently long record of previous events is needed, which can be provided by their sedimentary deposits. A number of past events have left extensive sedimentary deposits that can be used to understand the hydrodynamics of the tsunami. The ca 8.15 ka Storegga submarine slide was a large, tsunamigenic mass movement off the coast of Norway. The resulting tsunami had estimated run‐up heights of around 10 to 20 m on the Norwegian coast, over 30 m in Shetland and 3 to 6 m on the Scottish mainland coast. New cores were taken from the Ythan Valley in North‐East Scotland, where Storegga tsunami deposits have previously been found. High‐resolution sedimentary analyses of the cores, combined with statistical (changepoint) analysis, shows signatures of multiple waves. Moreover, detailed CT scans of the erosional basal surface reveal sole marks called skim marks. Taken in conjunction with the grain size and sedimentary fabric characteristics of the tsunami deposits, this indicates that the flow exhibited a high‐concentration basal component, with an initial semi‐cohesive phase and that deposition was dominantly capacity driven. A multiple wave hypothesis is tested by creating a high‐resolution numerical model (metre‐scale) of the wave inundation, coupled to a previously published regional model. The inundation model confirms that multiple waves passed over the site in agreement with the sedimentological analysis. The sensitivity of the model to the reconstructed palaeocoastal geomorphology is quantitatively explored. It is concluded that local palaeogeomorphological reconstruction is key to understanding the hydrodynamics of a tsunami wave group in relation to its sedimentary deposit. Combining sedimentological data with high‐resolution inundation modelling is a powerful tool to help interpret the sedimentary record of tsunami events and hence to improve knowledge of their risks.

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Lateglacial and Holocene relative sea‐level changes and first evidence for the Storegga tsunami in Sutherland, Scotland

Cited by 29 publications

References 44 publications

Quaternary sea level change in Scotland

Quaternary sea level change in Scotland

Prehistoric Coastal Mass Burials: Did Death Come in Waves?

Resolving tsunami wave dynamics: Integrating sedimentology and numerical modelling

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