Quaternary sea level change in Scotland

Smith, David E.; Barlow, Natasha; Bradley, Sarah; Firth, Callum R.; Hall, Adrian M.; Jordan, Jason; Long, David A.

doi:10.1017/s1755691017000469

Cited by 27 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 260 publications

(575 reference statements)

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“…7A) (Table 3) (section 3.2.2). The oldest features recognised in Caithness and Orkney are raised and intertidal rock platforms and associated rock cliffs buried by till (Crampton & Carruthers 1914;Smith et al 2018). On NW Hoy (Fig.…”

Section: Orkney and Caithnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These glacial oscillations, and an earlier one that formed a possible push moraine at Grange Hill, between Forres and Kinloss (Auton 2017c), are currently undated. They probably result partly from the competing strengths of ice flowing from the Great Glen and through the Beauly Firth basin, and partly from the delicate interplay between contemporary rates of global sea-level rise and local glacio-isostatic uplift (Merritt et al 1995;Smith et al 2018).…”

Section: Inverness and Moraymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…21), provided by cosmogenic techniques . Furthermore, in a review of relative sea-level changes, glacial isostatic modelling and ice sheet reconstructions from the British Isles since the LGM, Shennan et al (2006) conclude that the area only became ice-free after c.17 ka (Smith et al 2018).…”

Section: Stagementioning

confidence: 99%

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Late Pleistocene sediments, landforms and events in Scotland: a review of the terrestrial stratigraphic record

Merritt¹,

Hall

Gordon

et al. 2019

Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Socie

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Lithostratigraphical studies coupled with the development of new dating methods has led to significant progress in understanding the Late Pleistocene terrestrial record in Scotland. Systematic analysis and re-evaluation of key localities have provided new insights into the complexity of the event stratigraphy in some regions and the timing of Late Pleistocene environmental changes, but few additional critical sites have been described in the past 25 years. The terrestrial stratigraphic record remains important for understanding the timing, sequence and patterns of glaciation and deglaciation during the last glacial/interglacial cycle. Former interpretations of ice-free areas in peripheral areas during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) are inconsistent with current stratigraphic and dating evidence. Significant challenges remain to determine events and patterns of glaciation during the Early and Middle Devensian, particularly in the context of offshore evidence and ice sheet modelling that indicate significant build-up of ice throughout much of the period. The terrestrial evidence broadly supports recent reconstructions of a highly dynamic and climate-sensitive British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS), which apparently reached its greatest thickness in Scotland between 30 and 27 ka, before the global LGM. A thick (relative to topography) integrated ice sheet reaching the shelf edge with a simple ice-divide structure was replaced after the LGM by a much thinner one comprising multiple dispersion centres and a more complex flow structure.

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Section: Orkney and Caithnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Inverness and Moraymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Late Pleistocene sediments, landforms and events in Scotland: a review of the terrestrial stratigraphic record

Merritt¹,

Hall

Gordon

et al. 2019

Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Socie

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“…The most relevant shoreline isobase maps for Scotland are by Smith et al . (, ). For example, Smith et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Bradley et al, 2011). The most relevant shoreline isobase maps for Scotland are by Smith et al (2012Smith et al ( , 2017. For example, Smith et al (2004, fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconciling Storegga tsunami sedimentation patterns with modelled wave heights: A discussion from the Shetland Isles field laboratory

Dawson

Bondevik

et al. 2019

Sedimentology

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The Shetland Isles represent an ideal field laboratory for tsunami geoscience research. This is due to the widespread preservation of Holocene tsunami sediments in coastal peat deposits. This study uses published accounts of the Holocene Storegga Slide tsunami to illustrate how two different approaches – mapping of tsunami sediments and numerical modelling – produce radically different run‐up heights. The Storegga Slide is one of the world largest submarine slides and took place ca 8150 cal yr bp on the continental slope west of Norway. The tsunami generated by the landslide deposited locally extensive sheets of marine sand and gravel, as well as redeposited clasts of peat across the contemporary land surface. These sediment accumulations have subsequently been buried by peat growth during the Holocene while exposures of the deposits are locally visible in coastal cliff sections. In several areas, the tsunami sediments can be traced upslope and inland within the peat as tapering sediment wedges up to maximum altitudes of between ca 8·1 m and 11·8 m above present sea level. Since reconstructions of palaeo‐sea level for Shetland for ca 8150 cal yr bp suggest an altitude of 20 m below high tide on the day that the tsunami struck, it has been inferred that the minimum tsunami run‐up was locally between 28·1 m (8·1 + 20 m) and 31·8 m (11·8 + 20 m). However, numerical models of the tsunami for Shetland suggest that the wave height may only have reached a highest altitude in the order of +13 m above sea level on the day the tsunami took place. In this paper a description is given of the sedimentary evidence for tsunami run‐up in the Shetland Isles. This is followed by an evaluation of where the palaeo‐sea level was located when the tsunami occurred. Significant differences are highlighted in tsunami inundation estimates between those based on the observed (geological) data and the theoretically‐modelled calculations. This example from the Shetland Isles may have global significance since it exemplifies how two different approaches to the reconstruction of tsunami inundation at the coast can produce radically different results with modelled wave height at the coast being considerably less than the geological estimates of tsunami run‐up.

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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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Quaternary sea level change in Scotland

Abstract: Abstract

Cited by 27 publications

References 260 publications

Late Pleistocene sediments, landforms and events in Scotland: a review of the terrestrial stratigraphic record

Late Pleistocene sediments, landforms and events in Scotland: a review of the terrestrial stratigraphic record

Reconciling Storegga tsunami sedimentation patterns with modelled wave heights: A discussion from the Shetland Isles field laboratory

Resolving tsunami wave dynamics: Integrating sedimentology and numerical modelling

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