Reconstructing flow paths of the Middle Pleistocene British Ice Sheet in central-eastern England: the application of regional soil geochemical data

A polyphase glacitectonic model for ice-marginal retreat and terminal moraine development: the Middle Pleistocene British Ice Sheet, northern Norfolk, UK

“…The region is situated beyond the maximum limit of the Late Devensian (Weichselian) glaciation , but was repeatedly inundated by ice from the west (Central England) and north (North Sea) during the Middle Pleistocene (Perrin et al, 1979;Bowen et al, 1986;Hart and Boulton, 1991a;Lunkka, 1994; Clark et al., 2004;Scheib et al, 2011). Whether successive ice advances occurred during a single Anglian Glaciation (c.480-430ka) or multiple Middle Pleistocene glaciations centered on the Anglian is the Lee, J.R., Phillips, E., Booth, S.J., Rose, J., Jordan, H.M., Pawley, S.M., Warren, M., Lawley, R.S.…”

“…The Bacton Green Till was deposited by an earlier oscillation (A4) of the North Sea lobe of the British Ice Sheet into north Norfolk and consists of a complex sequence of subglacial and subaqueous diamictons (Lunkka, 1994;Lee and Phillips, 2008). As the margins of the North Sea lobe of ice retreated northwards, north Norfolk was crossed by a lobe of British ice that crossed the region broadly from west to east (Perrin et al, 1979;Ehlers et al, 1987;Scheib et al, 2011). This A5 advance led to the development of a variably pervasive glacitectonite which partly remobilised the underlying Bacton Green Till, and in places deposited a highly chalky till of western provenance, called the Weybourne Town Till (Dhonau and Dhonau, 1963;Banham and Ranson, 1965;Banham, 1966;Ehlers et al, 1987;Hart, 2007;Lee and Phillips, 2008;Phillips et al, 2008).…”

“…Each till is separated by variable thicknesses of glacilacustrine silts, clays and sands including the Mundesley Sand Member which crop-out between the Walcott and Bacton Green Till members. The sediment pile was then overridden and disrupted by ice advancing from the west/southwest (A5) leading to the formation of a glacitectonic mélange (Banham, 1965;Banham and Ranson, 1965;Lee and Phillips, 2008;Phillips et al, 2008; Fleming et al, this volume; Phillips and Lee, this volume), and the local deposition of a chalk-rich diamicton (Perrin et al, 1979; Ehlers et al, 1987; Ehlers et al, 1991;Pawley, 2006;Scheib et al, 2011). Recent work by Waller et al (2009) andWaller et al (2011) has suggested that an extensive permafrost developed prior to/during A5, with overriding of this 'warm permafrost' having influenced conditions within the bed of the ice sheet and the style of subglacial deformation.…”

Principal component analysis of the geochemistry of soil developed on till in Northern Ireland

“…The geochemical signature of the till is inherited from the bedrock parent material which allows till provenance to be established (Boston, Evans, & Ó 'Cofaigh, 2010). It has been demonstrated that soils developed on tills inherit the till geochemical signature so that analysing soils can be used to establish the regional ice flow patterns of former ice sheets (Scheib & Lee, 2010;Scheib, Dunlop, & Cooper, 2010;Scheib, Lee, Breward, & Riding, 2011).…”

Anomalous enrichment of molybdenum and associated metals in Lower Jurassic (Lias Group) black shales of central England, as revealed by systematic geochemical surveys

“…When sampling commenced in the late 1960s the work was stimulated by, and oriented towards, mineral exploration, but this high-resolution survey has evolved continuously and now has many environmental applications. The geochemical mapping, originally based on the collection of wet-sieved drainage sediments (sub-150 µm fraction) at a target sampling density of one stream sediment sample per square kilometre, has expanded to include the sampling and analysis of stream waters and soils (sub-2 mm fraction) and now also includes the systematic high-resolution sampling of urban soils (Fordyce et al, 2005) publications have shown how widely these regional geochemical data can be used: to interpret subtle geological changes (Stone et al, 2004;Breward et al, 2011); to demonstrate the relationships between soils, heavy metal pollution and parent material (Breward, 2003, 2007, Johnson et al, 2011and Rawlins et al, 2003; glaciation studies (Scheib et al, 2011); in bioaccessibility studies (Palumbo-Roe et al, 2005); in archaeology (Chenery et al, 2001); environmental radioactivity (Jones et al, 2009); surface water quality research (Begum et al, 2010); and to better inform legislation such as defining normal levels of contaminants in soils for the UK Part 2A contaminated land Statutory Guidance (Johnson et al, 2012).…”