In recent years, a range of operculate sixth abdominal tergite types of pylochelid and parapylochelid hermit crabs (Anomura, Paguroidea) have been recorded from Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian and Kimmeridgian) strata in southern Poland and southern Germany. Here we add two new genera (Parapylochelitergites, Paguritergites) and four new late Early Cretaceous species (Parapylochelitergites pustulosus, Pylochelitergites alatus, Pylochelitergites rugosus and Paguritergites yvonnecooleae) from Navarra, northern Spain. In the reefal limestones at Koskobilo quarry near Alsasua, of late Albian age, the number of sixth abdominal paguroid tergite taxa approximates that of paguroid carapace types. Thus, linking fossil paguroid carapaces to tergites can now be attempted. Assemblages of symmetrical hermit crabs (parapylochelids and pylochelids) in reefal settings appear to have changed drastically from the late Albian onwards, with asymmetrical forms (Diogenidae, Paguridae) becoming predominant.

In the Netherlands North Sea area, the Chalk Group has thus far been subdivided into the Cenomanian Texel Formation, the Turonian to Maastrichtian Ommelanden Formation and the Danian Ekofisk Formation. This paper describes the attempt to arrive at a more detailed lithostratigraphic subdivision for this area, particularly of the Ommelanden Formation. To this end, a seismic stratigraphic analysis was carried out on a regional 2D and 3D seismic dataset. The Chalk Group was subdivided into eleven seismic stratigraphic sequences, named CK1 through CK11, based on the mapping and correlation of unconformities. The identified seismic sequence boundaries were used as the main chronostratigraphic markers in the Chalk Group interval. The seismic dataset was subsequently expanded with well log data of 45 boreholes. These were tied to the seismic dataset by constructing a synthetic seismogram for each borehole, after which the seismic sequence boundaries were noted and correlated on the logs. Finally, micropaleonthological data available in 15 boreholes were used to date the seismic sequences. The sequences were interpreted to be of Cenomanian (CK1), Turonian (CK2), Coniacian (CK3), Santonian (CK4), Early Campanian (CK5; CK6), Middle to Late Campanian (CK7), Early Maastrichtian (CK8; CK9), Late Maastrichtian (CK10) and Danian (CK11) age. The seismic units recognised in this study were compared with formal lithostratigraphic units defined in the Chalk Group in the surrounding North Sea sectors. Based on this comparison, a revision of the formal lithostratigraphic scheme, recognising Tor Formation and Herring Formation equivalents, is suggested for the Netherlands North Sea area.

Temperature profiles along east-west and north-south transects in Europe are presented for four time-slices covering the two most prominent warming phases of the last glacial-interglacial transition: Late Pleniglacial (LP), early Bøiling (BL), Younger Dryas (YD), and Preboreal (PB). These temperature profiles are based on two methods: 1) simulation experiments with an atmospheric general circulation model, 2) reconstructions based on terrestrial geological and palaeoecological data. The profiles have The Netherlands as intersection point (52°N, 5°E). During the cold phases (LP and YD), the simulated and reconstructed temperature gradients are very steep in a north-south direction, ranging in January from -25°C in northern Europe (56–60°N) to at least 5°C near the Mediterranean, and in July from 0°C to 20°C. The east-west profiles along 52°N for LP and YD show that temperatures in Eastern Europe were similar to the Atlantic coast (i.e. between ‒15°C and ‒25°C). During the warm phases (BL and PB), the temperature regimes resembled present-day thermal conditions, although steeper north-south and east-west temperature gradients were present during BL and PB. The model simulations suggest that continental Europe was a few degrees warmer during PB and BL than today in July under influence of the relatively high summer insolation. Considering the change of climate through time, the profiles show that in The Netherlands the warming during the two transitions (LP-BL, YD-PB) was relatively small compared to regions to the West and North, whereas in Eastern and Southern Europe the temperature increase is even smaller. This reflects the dominant influence of latitudinal movements of the North Atlantic polar front and associated sea-ice margin.

The Mema is a semi-arid region in central Mali with a rich archaeologicalheritage indicating the former existence of large urban settlements. Thearchaeological data suggest millennia of occupation history of the Mémapreceding relatively sudden abandonment by the 14th or 15th century AD.Population numbers have remained low since then and today’s human presencein the area is sparse and largely mobile. Geomorphologically, the Méma canbe characterized as a graben hosting various generations of aeolianlandforms and (presently mostly dry) interdunal channels and lakes, linkedto the neighbouring Inland Niger Delta floodplain. Given this setting, andthe variability of the Sahelian climate, climatic contributions to theregion’s sudden abandonment are likely. A geomorphological survey of theregion, and interpretation of the observed geomorphological record in termsof climatic history, aimed at providing a basis for understanding theintensive occupation and subsequent abandonment of the Méma. The results ofthis study underscore dramatic Holocene climatic variability, leading to theregion’s present geomorphological diversity, but also suggest thatneotectonic movements constitute an important additional cause of regionaldesiccation. Both may have encouraged prehistoric people to abandon the Mémaafter a long period of occupation.

An overview is presented of belemnitellid faunas of Santonian to Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) age in the Mons Basin and in the Brabant-Méhaigne and Maastricht-Aachen-Liège areas (Belgium, southeast Netherlands). As many as twenty-two species of the genera Actinocamax Miller, 1823, Gonioteuthis Bayle, 1878, Belemnitella d'Orbigny, 1840 and Belemnella Nowak, 1913 have been recorded to date. On the basis of these, thirteen zones can be distinguished: three in the Santonian (G. w. westfalica, G. westfalicagranulata and G. granulata), six in the Campanian (G. granulataquadrata, G. quadrata, Blt. mucronata, Blt. woodi, Blt. minor I and Blt. minor II) and four in the Maastrichtian (Bln. obtusa, Bln. ex gr. sumensis/cimbrica, Blt. junior and Bln. kazimiroviensis). Correlative schemes between these zones and those proposed for Norfolk (southeast England) and for the combined Lägerdorf-Kronsmoor-Hemmoor section (northern Germany) are presented. The belemnitellid assemblage of the study area closely resembles that of Norfolk, but differs from the late Campanian faunas of northwest Germany.

Modelling of surface and shallow subsurface data is getting more and more advanced and is demonstrated mostly for onshore (hydro)geological applications. Three-dimensional (3D) modelling techniques are used increasingly, and now include voxel modelling that often employs stochastic or probabilistic methods to assess model uncertainty. This paper presents an adapted methodological workflow for the 3D modelling of offshore sand deposits and aims at demonstrating the improvement of the estimations of lithological properties after incorporation of more geological layers in the modelling process. Importantly, this process is driven by new geological insight from the combined interpretation of seismic and borehole data. Applying 3D modelling techniques is challenging given that offshore environments may be heavily reworked through time, often leading to thin and discontinuous deposits. Since voxel and stochastic modelling allow in-depth analyses of a multitude of properties (and their associated uncertainties) that define a lithological layer, they are ideal for use in an aggregate resource exploitation context. The voxel model is now the backbone of a decision support system for long-term sand extraction on the Belgian Continental Shelf.

The late Maastrichtian to Late Paleocene seismostratigraphic record of the Roer Valley Graben provides new data on the timing and dynamics of stress changes related to the intra-plate deformation of northwestern Europe. During the deposition of late Maastrichtian to middle Danian limestones, no severe tectonic movements occurred in the southern part of the Roer Valley Graben. Around the late Danian, a known fundamental change in the European intra-plate stress field initiated an increase in subsidence of the southern part of the Roer Valley Graben. Subsidence along the graben border zone enabled relatively thick accumulations of the latest Danian to mid-Selandian siliciclastics in the intra-graben zone. Subsidence was not bounded by large offsets along faults, but rather by flexuring within and along the borders of the Roer Valley Graben. The intensity of these dynamics diminished after the middle Selandian. Most likely due to inherited intra-basinal structural differences, the northern and southern part of the Roer Valley Graben experienced distinctly different late Maastrichtian to Late Paleocene tectonics.

In southern Belgium (Mons Basin and Tournai region) and northern France (area between Lille, Valenciennes and Maubeuge), condensed sequences have been referred to as ‘tourtias’ since the start of the nineteenth century. These levels correspond to a succession of trangressive systems tracts and generally appear as dark green, glauconitic and microconglomeratic facies. They are distributed all along the base of the more important transgressive systems tracts of the Cenomanian and basal Turonian from the Boulonnais (northwest France) to the Mons Basin (southern Belgium), through the Artois and Douaisis. Their age can now be determined more accurately by identification of their ammonite content, as housed in museums such as the Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique (IRScNB, Brussels) and the Musée d'Histoire naturelle de Lille (MHNL). Here material from the IRScNB collections is described, illustrated and discussed; specimens contained in the MHNL collections were described in a previous paper.

This paper presents the method applied to history-match the Groningen field dynamic model to conventional data (pressure data and water influx data) and to subsidence data, which is a novelty. Modelled subsidence is matched to subsidence data based on a simplified geomechanical model, which was built into the dynamic simulator.

A two-tier method was used to first achieve a match on a field-wide scale using field-average history-match quantifiers, which was then further improved at a regional/well level using regional history-match quantifiers. The history match was assisted by a space-filling experimental design. The resulting model has a field-average match to pressure data of ±2.17bar with a measurement uncertainty of ±0.4bar, to water influx data of ±2m with a measurement uncertainty of ±0.5m, and to subsidence data of ±4cm with a measurement uncertainty of ±1cm.

The output from this model is used as input for compaction, subsidence and production forecasts feeding into the hazard and risk assessment completed by NAM for the Groningen Winningsplan 2016.

This study provides an overview of existing palynological and chronological data of the northern Meuse valley which have been collected over recent decades. The palynological data were used to make a vegetation reconstruction in time and space for the Lateglacial and early Holocene. The vegetation development is strongly influenced by the rapid climate changes that occurred during this time period. It is shown that the biostratigraphy can be used to provide better age estimates for the abandoned channel fills, which have been dated in most cases using conventional bulk 14C dates. Furthermore, the combination with a geomorphological reconstruction based on AHN (actual height model of the Netherlands) lidar data has been used to evaluate the interactions between fluvial terrace formation and vegetation development. It appears that, although the vegetation development is comparable to the general vegetation development in the Netherlands, slight differences occur, in particular of the vegetation composition, presumably linked to the dynamic geomorphological activity in the Meuse valley. Finally, the spatial distribution of sites may give indications for the migration routes of pine (Pinus) and poplar (Populus) during this period of rapid vegetation development over the Last Glacial–Interglacial Transition.

The results from analyses of botanical remains (pollen, wood, charcoal, seeds) from several archaeological features excavated in Kluizen (northern Belgium) are presented. The region was largely uninhabited until the Iron Age and Roman period when a rural settlement was established, resulting in small-scale woodland clearance. The site was subsequently abandoned from c. AD 270 till the High Middle Ages. The results of the archaeological and archaeobotanical analyses provide information on changes in land use and resulting dynamics of woodland cover and composition between c.600 BC and AD 1200, with a spatial and temporal resolution unrivalled in northern Belgium. Especially the long period of woodland regeneration following abandonment of the site around AD 270, covering the Late Roman and Early Medieval period, could be reconstructed in detail. Abandoned fields were first covered with pioneer woodland (Salix, Corylus and Betula), then Quercus-dominated secondary forest and finally a late-successional forest with Fagus sylvatica, Carpinus betulus and Ilex aquifolium, an evolution that took over 300 years. The results also indicate that the observed increase of Fagus during the Early Middle Ages, which was never an important element in the woodland vegetation in northern Belgium before, was related to climatic changes rather than anthropogenic factors.

Remains of Late Cretaceous birds are rare, which is especially true for Europe and the type area of the Maastrichtian Stage (southeast Netherlands, northeast Belgium) in particular. In the present paper, we record new remains (isolated tarsometatarsus and radius) that document the presence of both enantiornithine and ornithurine birds in the Maastrichtian area. These fossils, although fragmentary, are important in view of their stratigraphic age: all bird remains discovered to date in the Maastricht area are amongst the youngest ’non-modern’ avians known, originating from strata deposited less than 500,000 years prior to the end of the Cretaceous Period.

The coversands along the Peel Boundary Fault in the Netherlands were investigated by a luminescence dating approach combining Infrared Optically Stimulated Luminescence (IRSL) and Thermoluminescence (TL) methods. At the Neer trench, ten samples were collected and investigated in order to set up an independent chronological framework for the deposition history of the fluvio-aeolian and aeolian sediments and hence the timing of Late Weichselian and Holocene earthquake events. Five sedimentary units could be distinguished by this chronological approach. The oldest fluvio-aeolian unit yielded a mean deposition age of 35.9±0.4 ka and is designated to correlate with the Middle Weichselian. An IRSL age estimate of 20.1 ±2.9 ka was determined for the sediment that most likely represents the Older Coversands I, and a mean luminescence age of 15.1±1.2 ka for deposits just below the Beuningen gravel bed. The aeolian sediment from above the Beuningen horizon yielded an IRSL age estimate of 9.4±1.0 ka. The youngest deposits from the colluvial wedge yielded <6.9±0.7 ka BP, and so an earthquake event was likely to occur during the Middle or Late Holocene, as evidenced by the luminescence age estimates.

The original distribution pattern of Middle-Palaeolithic artefacts may be affected by tectonic movement, sedimentation and periglacial processes. This is e.g. the case in the coversand area of Limburg and Eastern Brabant (NL), where the occurrence of numerous finds in a SW-NE trending zone across the Roer Valley Graben is considered enigmatic. In order to elucidate the processes affecting the spatial distribution and the chance of recovery of such artefacts, we investigated a site in Nederweert. At this site, several Middle-Palaeolithic artefacts had been recovered earlier from unexpectedly shallow depths. A test pit profile and grain size analyses revealed that the shallow sediments at this site have been affected by intense, multi-phase cryoturbation, which has deformed the sand and loam layers and partially mixed them thoroughly. As a result, optically stimulated luminescence dating of these sediments yielded widely scattered single-aliquot equivalent dose distributions. Using a Finite Mixture Model (FMM), it was estimated that cryoturbation caused mixing of sediments deposited between 12 and 50 ka with sediment grains deposited between 60-150 ka. The latter material is probably the original context of the Middle-Paleolithic artefacts. Apparently, cryoturbation and potentially other periglacial processes have transported artefacts closer to the surface. Based on these results, we suggest that the occurrence of Middle-Palaeolithic artefacts is caused by (1) the tectonically-induced spatial distribution of layers of this age and (2) periglacial processes having caused migration of artefacts towards the surface. Although periglacial processes may facilitate finding Middle Palaeolithic artefacts, they may severely disturb the original context to such an extent that Middle Palaeolithic sites can no longer be identified. The results of this study form a basis for improving the Indicative Map of Archaeological Values that is used to predict the presence of archaeological sites. The insights gained are also relevant to other areas where Middle-Palaeolithic sites are affected by periglacial processes.

The morpho-genetic evolution of the upper Aller valley (Weser basin, North Germany) was reconstructed using geological and géomorphologie data integrated within a numerical process model framework (FLUVER-2). The current relief was shaped by Pre-Elsterian fluvial processes, Elsterian and Saalian ice sheets, followed by Weichselian fluvial processes. Structural analysis based on subsurface data and morphological interpretations were used to reconstruct uplift/subsidence rates. A detailed analysis led to the hypothesis that we are dealing with either a NNW-SSE or a WSW-ENE oriented compression leading to uplift in the upper Aller valley. It is also hypothesised that the NNW-SSE compression might have caused strike-slip deformation leading to differential block movement and tilt. Two different uplift rate scenarios were reconstructed and used as a variable parameter in numerical modelling scenarios simulating the Late Quaternary longitudinal dynamics of the Aller. Each different scenario was run for 150.000 years and calibrated to the actual setting. The resulting model settings were consequently evaluated for their plausibility and validity. Subsequently, regional semi-3D simulations of valley development were made to test the two tectonic stress hypotheses. Differential tectonic uplift and regional tilt seems to have played an important role in shaping the current valley morphology in the upper Aller. Unfortunately, due to the uncertainties involved, we were unable to discriminate between the two postulated tectonic stress scenarios.

Drained coastal peatlands are a source of greenhouse gas (GHG) through abundant CO2 release caused by aerobic peat degradation. Published rates of CO2 fixation and CH4 release for natural peatlands suggest that areas of peat formation are a (small) net source of GHG emission because the radiative effect of emitted CH4 exceeds the CO2 uptake by the vegetation. It is shown here that wetland restoration of reclaimed peat areas in the western Netherlands leads to a reduction of GHG emission because the expected increase in anaerobically generated CH4 release is much smaller than the decrease in aerobically produced CO2.

Since 2003 extensive archaeological research has been conducted in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, connected with the initial phase of the new underground system (Noord/Zuidlijn). Research has mainly focused on two locations, Damrak and Rokin, in the centre of Medieval Amsterdam. Both sites are situated around the (former) River Amstel, which is of vital importance for the origin and development of the city of Amsterdam. Information on the Holocene evolution of the river, however, is relatively sparse. This project has provided new evidence combining archaeological and geological data, and allowed the reconstruction of six consecutive landscape phases associated with the development of the River Amstel. The course of the present-day Amstel is the result of a complex interaction of processes that started with an early prehistoric tidal gully within the Wormer Member of the Naaldwijk Formation, including Late Neolithic (2400–2000 BC) occupation debris in its fill that was subsequently eroded. Next, this system developed into a later prehistoric Amstel river course that was part of the Angstel–Vecht–Oer-IJ system (1020–350 BC), meandering through a peat-dominated landscape. Later on the processes included intensive reclamation of land, drainage and canalisation, although the Amstel was also strongly influenced by natural storm tides. After intense land reclamation, starting around 1200 AD, the meandering Amstel from Nes to Kalverstraat, which was originally 150 m wide, became the rather straight 20–50 m wide tamed, canalised river of today.

This study presents an annually resolved dendrochronological reconstruction of hydrological impacts on the Roman and early-medieval landscape in the Low Countries of northwestern Europe. Around 600 hydrologically sensitive ring-width patterns, mostly oak (Quercus robur/petraea) as well as some ash (Fraxinus excelsior) and elm (Ulmus sp.), were selected from an initial dataset of >5000 and compiled into two chronologies that span the first millennium AD. Their content and (dis)similarities to established tree-ring chronologies from this and surrounding regions were used to assess their provenance, which in both cases is in the area where the majority of the wood was recovered. Instances of high groundwater levels and/or inundation were catalogued by identifying multi-year intervals of strongly reduced annual growth that occurred simultaneously throughout the research area. The resulting record contains 164 events dated between AD 1 and 1000, of which 21 have a recurrence frequency ≥50 years. One-third of the ≥50-yr events date between AD 185 and 282, making this the most flood-intense interval of the first millennium. The severest reconstructed impact of the first millennium dates to AD 602. A comparison to historically documented river floods/sea breaches and drought/heat spells shows that the predominant cause of the inferred impacts in the research area was river overflow. Synchronous inundation responses of oaks preserved in former bogs in Lower Saxony (NW Germany) indicate that half of the reconstructed events occurred on a supra-regional level, pointing to regional precipitation as a main forcing. River floods documented in written sources do not seem to have affected tree growth in Lower Saxony in a significant manner, indicating that the majority of documented floods most likely were caused by hydrological circumstances upstream of the catchments of the Rhine and/or Meuse. Reconstructed flood impacts during the Early Middle Ages coincide remarkably well with construction and repair of Rhine revetments at the early-medieval site of Leiderdorp-Plantage in the western Netherlands.

Insectivore remains are not common in the Lower Oligocene of Europe. For this reason, the study of the earliest Oligocene insectivore fauna (MP 21) from Boutersem and Hoogbutsel, all together yielding nine species, representing five families, constitutes an important progress in the knowledge of the Late Eocene and Early Oligocene insectivore evolution. Some of the genera discovered in Belgium are known from upper Eocene sites (Saturninia, Amphidozotherium, Euronyctia, Eotalpa), whereas others are not known before the Oligocene (Butselia, Tetracus, Heterosoricinae ind.). The co-occurrence of primitive species of Nyctitheriidae with modern forms belonging to the Plesiosoricidae, Talpidae and Erinaceidae at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary suggests a transition fauna. Between the Priabonian (Late Eocene) and the Rupelian (Early Oligocene), the endemic European insectivores were in competition with the new immigrants. This faunal turnover is generally accepted as the ‘Grande Coupure’ event (the MP 21 event).

Botanical microfossils, macroremains and oribatid mites of a Weichselian interstadial deposit in the central Netherlands point to a temporary, sub-arctic wetland in a treeless landscape. Radiocarbon dates and OSL dates show an age between ca. 54.6 and 46.6 ka cal BP. The vegetation succession, starting as a peat-forming wetland that developed into a lake, might well be linked with a Dansgaard-Oeschger climatic cycle. We suggest that during the rapid warming at the start of a D-O cycle, relatively low areas in the landscape became wetlands where peat was formed. During the more gradual temperature decline that followed, evaporation diminished; the wetlands became inundated and lake sediments were formed. During subsequent sub-arctic conditions the interstadial deposits were covered with wind-blown sand. Apart from changes in effective precipitation also the climate-related presence and absence of permafrost conditions may have played a role in the formation of the observed sedimentological sequence from sand to peat, through lacustrine sediment, with coversand on top. The Wageningen sequence may correspond with D-O event 12, 13 or 14. Some hitherto not recorded microfossils were described and illustrated.