The termination of the last major phase of aeolian sand movement, coastal dunefields, Denmark

Abstract

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of sand samples from stabilized (or inactive) coastal dunes in Denmark provides information on the age of the termination phase of the last major aeolian activity period. A total of 26 sand samples were taken from four different coastal dunefields around the North Sea, Skagerrak and Kattegat coasts of Denmark. The OSL dates indicate that the last major phase of aeolian activity terminated between AD 1860 and 1905. Most of the dunes examined in this study were active around 1820, during a period documented to have been very stormy. A dune management scheme started around 1792, and this no doubt was a major cause of dunefield stabilization, but an overall decline of storminess, particularly spring and summer storminess, around the end of the 19th century must also have contributed to the increasing inactivity of coastal dunes. The new OSL dates on aeolian sand movement agree well with historical data and data from topographic maps on dune movement. This agreement supports the observation from earlier work that OSL dating of recent aeolian sand movement is accurate over the last few decades to centuries.

Global climate change: an opportunity for coastal dunes??

“…11). In a sense, this is similar to the situation described by Clemmensen and Murray (2006) and by Clarke and Renell (2006) that related dune activity or mobilization to the variation in storminess that interacted with sediment supply to cause periods of inland displacement of coastal dunes. Whether driven by increased mobilization associated with a higher sea level or higher penetration of storm surges, or both, there is an opportunity for an alongshore component of dune zone mobility and development at a time when the general shoreline is being eroded.…”

Holocene sea level fluctuations and coastal evolution in the central Algarve (southern Portugal)

“…The flow and load of the rivers decreased and sediment that reached the littoral zone was deposited mainly in the upper foreshore due to the sea level rise. Storminess sometimes correlated with cool events has been referred as responsible for the dune activity phases (e.g., Otvos, 2001;Clemmensen and Murray, 2006;Clarke and Rendell, 2006). However, the wind acts in a deflation area which extension is controlled by sea level oscillations.…”

“…The genesis of the currently stabilized coastal dunefields at Denmark was correlated with spring and summer storminess which decreases at the end of the 19th century favoured the dune stabilization (Clemmensen and Murray, 2006). Storminess was also pointed as an important process on dune development between 1770 and 1905 AD at the western Portuguese coast probably correlated with negative North Atlantic Oscillation index winter (Clarke and Rendell, 2006).…”

Climate control on late Holocene high-energy sedimentation along coasts of the northeastern Atlantic Ocean

“…Onshore, HSPs are associated with the widespread formation of massive aeolian dune fields and coversands stretching along the coasts of western Europe (Alexanderson and Bernhardson, 2016;Bateman and Godby, 2004;Clarke et al, 2002;Clarke and Rendell, 2006;Clemmensen et al, 1996;Clemmensen and Murray, 2006;Clemmensen et al, 2009;Costas et al, 2013Costas et al, , 2012Costas et al, , 2016Gilbertson et al, 1999;Jelgersma et al, 1995;Nielsen et al, 2016;Sommerville et al, 2007;van Vliet-Lanoë et al, 2016;Wilson and Braley, 1997;Wilson et al, 2004), also recorded as the deposition of thin windblown quartz layers over soils (Jackson et al, 2005) and peat bogs (Björck and Clemmensen, 2004;de Jong et al, 2006de Jong et al, , 2007Kylander et al, 2016;Orme et al, 2015Orme et al, , 2016Sjögren, 2009;Tisdall et al, 2013). Aeolian activity was initiated during the last glacial termination (Costas et al, 2016) that gave rise to the periglacial "European Sand Belt" (Zeeberg, 2008), the most recent phase of dune formation being the LIA.…”