Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T23:25:42.572Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Hoxnian interglacial doline infilling at Slade Oak Lane, Denham, Buckinghamshire, England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

P. L. Gibbard ,
I. D. Bryant  and
A. R. Hall
P. L. Gibbard
Affiliation:
Subdepartment of Quaternary Research, Botany School, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EA, U.K.
I. D. Bryant
Affiliation:
Shell International Petroleum Company, KSEPL, Postbus 60, 2280AB, Rijswijk (ZH), Netherlands
A. R. Hall
Affiliation:
Environmental Archaeology Unit, University of York, Heslington, York, YO1 5DD, U.K.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Site investigations for the M25 motorway at Denham proved a maximum depth of 37.5 m of deposits filling an enclosed hollow up to 40 m across beneath a small seasonally dry valley near Higher Denham. This previously unknown very steepsided hollow is infilled with gravel and sand, partially laminated clayey silt and pebbly clay. Within these deposits a bed of organic clay mud up to 4.5 m in thickness is present. Resistivity survey of the hollow proves that it is completely enclosed.

Palaeobotanical investigation shows that the organic sediment contains fossil pollen, spores and macroscopic remains. The pollen spectra indicate that the sediments accumulated during the later half of the Hoxnian interglacial Stage (Ho III/IV). Macroscopic remains include ‘relict’ species Dulichium arundinaceum, and Brasenia schreberi, the latter being new to the Hoxnian Stage. The evidence for waterlevel fluctuation during the interglacial at the site is discussed.

The origin of the hollow is considered and the conclusion reached is that it is a doline formed by solution of the underlying Chalk bedrock. The infilling of the basin is attributed to collapse, solifluction and slope wash of local material under cold climates before and after the interglacial. The interglacial sediment is a shallow water pool accumulation. The hollow is thought to have been formed originally as a solution pipe beneath the Thames' Gerrards Cross Gravel, rapid drainage of a neighbouring glacial lake causing the major collapse in the late Anglian Stage. Subsequent infill took place during the later part of the Anglian, Hoxnian and Wolstonian Stages and possibly even later.

Heavy mineral analyses of the silt-rich sediment above and beneath the interglacial deposits are appended and indicate that it is almost all of local Reading Beds material.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 123 , Issue 1 , January 1986 , pp. 27 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andrew, R. 1970. The Cambridge reference collection. In Studies in the Vegetational History of the British Isles (ed. Walker, D. and West, R. G.), pp. 225–231. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Avery, B. W., Bullock, P., Catt, J. A., Rayner, J. H. & Weir, A. H. 1982. Composition and origin of some brickearths on the Chiltern Hills, England. Catena 9, 153–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bates, C. D., Coxon, P. & Gibbard, P. L. 1978. A new method for the preparation of clay-rich sediment samples for palynological investigation. The New Phytologist 81, 459–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, F. G. 1970. Late Pleistocene floras from Earith, Huntingdonshire. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B258, 347–78.Google Scholar
Berry, F. G. 1979. Late Quaternary scour hollows and related features in Central London. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology 12, 9–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birks, H. J. B. 1973. Past and Present Vegetation of the Isle of Skye – A Palaeoecological Study. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Catt, J. A. & Hodgson, J. M. 1976. Soils and geomorphology of the Chalk in south-east England. Earth Surface Processes 1, 181–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chartres, C. J. & Whalley, W. B. 1975. Evidence for Late Quaternary solution of Chalk at Basingstoke, Hampshire. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 86, 365–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clapham, A. R., Tutin, T. G. & Warburg, E. F. 1962. Flora of the British Isles. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cvijič, J. 1893. Das karstphanomen. Geographische Abhand-lungen 5, 215–319.Google Scholar
Dicken, S. N. 1935. Kentucky karst landscape. Journal of Geology 43, 708–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Early, K. R. & Dyer, K. R. 1964. The use of a resistivity survey on a foundation site underlain by karst dolomite. Geotechnique 14, 341–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edmonds, C. N. 1983. Towards the prediction of subsidence risk upon the Chalk outcrop. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology 16, 261–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, O. 1859. On some natural pits on the heaths of Dorsetshire. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 15, 187–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
French, H. M. 1976. The Periglacial Environment. London: Longman Group.Google Scholar
Gibbard, P. L. 1977. The Pleistocene history of the Vale of St Albans. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B280, 445–83.Google Scholar
Gibbard, P. L. 1985. The Pleistocene history of the Middle Thames Valley. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gibbard, P. L. & Aalto, M. M. 1977. A Hoxnian interglacial site at Fisher's Green, Stevenage, Hertfordshire. The New Phytologist 72, 505–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godwin, H. 1975. History of the British Flora. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hall, A. R. 1978. Some new palaeobotanical records for the British Ipswichian interglacial. The New Phytologist 81, 805–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, A. R. 1980. Late Pleistocene deposits at Wing, Rutland. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B289, 135–64.Google Scholar
Hall, A. R. 1985. Macrofossil analysis from Athelington. In Coxon, P. A Hoxnian interglacial site at Athelington, Suffolk. The New Phytologist 99, 611–21.Google Scholar
Hare, F. K. 1947. The geomorphology of a part of the Middle Thames. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 58, 294–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, H. L. 1953. A pinnacle of chalk penetrating the Eocene on the floor of a buried river-channel at Ashford Hill, near Newbury, Berskhire. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 108, 233–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higginbottom, I. E. & Fookes, P. G. 1971. Engineering aspects of periglacial features in Britain. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology 3, 85–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, D. K. C. 1981. Southeast and Southern England. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Kelly, M. R. 1964. The Middle Pleistocene of north Birmingham. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B247, 533–92.Google Scholar
Kenward, H. K., Hall, A. R. & Jones, A. K. G. 1980. A tested set of techniques for the extraction of waterlogged archaeological deposits. Science and Archaeology 22, 3–15.Google Scholar
Mcdowell, P. W. 1975. Detection of clay filled sink-holes in the Chalk by geophysical methods. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology 8, 303–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mcgregor, D. F. M. & Green, C. P. 1983. Post depositional modification of Pleistocene terraces of the River Thames. Boreas 12, 23–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marres, P. 1933. Les Grandes Causses. Tours: Arrault.Google Scholar
Nicod, J. 1967. Recherches morphologiques en Basse-Provence Calcaire. Thesis. Gap: Imprimerie Louis-Jean.Google Scholar
Phillips, L. M. 1976. Pleistocene vegetational history and geology in Norfolk. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B275, 275–86.Google Scholar
Sherlock, R. L. & Noble, A. H. 1922. The Geology of the Country around Beaconsfield. Memoir. Geological Survey of Great Britain.Google Scholar
Sparks, B. W. 1975. Geomorphology. London: Longman Group.Google Scholar
Sparks, B. W. West, R. G., Williams, R. B. G. & Ransom, M. 1969. Hoxnian interglacial deposits at Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 80, 243–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sperling, C. B. H., Goudie, A. S., Stoddart, D. R. & Poole, G. G. 1977. Dolines in the Dorset chalklands and other areas in southern Britain. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. New Series 2, 205–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sweeting, M. M. 1972. Karst landforms. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Troels-Smith, J. 1955. Karakterisering af løse jordarter. Danmarks Geologiske Undersøgelse IV. Raekke. 3, no. 10.Google Scholar
Turner, C. 1970. The Middle Pleistocene deposits at Marks Tey, Essex. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B257, 373–440.Google Scholar
Turner, C. & West, R. G. 1968. The subdivision and zonation of interglacial periods. Eiszeitalter und Gegenwart 19, 93–101.Google Scholar
Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A. 1964–1980. Flora Europaea, Volumes 1–5. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Washburn, A. L. 1979. Geocryology. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Waton, P. 1980. Rimsmoor, Dorset: pollen record from Late Boreal to present in eighteen metres of peat. Quaternary Newsletter 30, 25.Google Scholar
West, R. G. 1956. The Quaternary deposits at Hoxne, Suffolk. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B239, 265–356.Google Scholar
West, R. G. 1968. Pleistocene Geology and Biology. London: Longman Group.Google Scholar
West, R. G. 1980. Pleistocene forest history in East Anglia. The New Phytologist 85, 571–622.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilmot, R. D. & Young, B. 1985. Aluminite and other aluminium minerals from Newhaven, Sussex: the first occurrence of Norstrandite in Great Britain. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 96, 47–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wooldridge, S. W. 1938. The glaciation of the London Basin and the evolution of the Lower Thames drainage system. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 94, 627–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar