Sediment Analysis

Optical dating of late Holocene storm surges from Schokland (Noordoostpolder, the Netherlands) Don van den Biggelaar (1), Sjoerd Kluiving (1,2), Roland van Balen (3,4), Cronelils Kasse (3), Simon Troelstra (3), Maarten Prins (3), Jakob Wallinga (5), and Alice Versendaal (5)

Flevoland (central Netherlands) is an area of long-term discontinuous deposition that has been reclaimed from the Zuiderzee in the 20th century. Before the reclamation, the Zuiderzee had been in a phase of enlargement, threatening inhabitants on the islands and the shores, since the Medieval Period. During this phase, a surficial clay cover was deposited on the island of Schokland (World Heritage Site: Noordoostpolder, northern Flevoland). We have studied the clay sequence in order to reconstruct the island’s flooding history during the last 1200 years. The depositional history of the youngest clay deposit on Schokland is inferred from a literature study, analyses of a digital elevation model, six coring transects, three new 14C accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates and laboratory analyses. The laboratory analyses include thermogravimetric analysis, grain-size end-member modelling (unmixing grain-size distributions), foraminifera, bivalves and ostracods. The geological data were...

In this study which was carried out between November 2004 and October 2005, samplings were performed to determine the macrobenthic invertebrate fauna of Lake Sarıkum in Sinop. The samples were collected from four designated points monthly. The samplings in June, August and September were not carried out because of adverse weather conditions. As a result of the study, totally 26 benthic taxa belonging to Gastropoda (6 taxon), Bivalvia (7 taxon) and Crustacea (13 taxon) were determined. The temperature, salinity, pH and reduction of oxidation values of the research area were measured, and sediment samples were collected in order to fix the structure of the bottoms of the designated points. It was generally observed that most of the taxon identified in the macrobenthic fauna of Lake Sarıkum was euryform organisms. As a result of the measurements of organic matters and reduction of oxidation, it was determined that the first designated point is low and the fourth one is high in organic matter quantity.

Prior to the maximum southward extension of the Fennoscandian ice sheet (MIS 6, ∼150 ka) the central Netherlands was part of a large delta which was inhabited by hunter-gathers. The Middle Palaeolithic flint artefacts left by these early inhabitants of the central Netherlands occur in ice-pushed ridges surrounding the Gelderse Vallei area. These ridges contain pushed alluvial deposits from the rivers Rhine and Meuse. Given the occurrence of the Middle Palaeolithic flint artefacts in the ice-pushed ridges surrounding the Gelderse Vallei area and the knowledge that the ice-pushed ridges continue into the subsurface of Flevoland, we hypothesize that the area of Middle Palaeolithic habitation has a northward extension, via the study area towards the mouth of the river Rhine into a proglacial lake in the current North Sea Basin. To test this hypothesis we have analysed high-quality coring data of pushed Rhine and Meuse alluvial deposits in the subsurface of Almere and correlated to the Middle Palaeolithic artefact-bearing layer exposed in quarries in the Gelderse Vallei area.

Flevoland (central Netherlands) is an area of long-term discontinuous deposition that has been reclaimed from the Zuiderzee in the 20th century. Before the reclamation, the Zuiderzee had been in a phase of enlargement, threatening inhabitants on the islands and the shores, since the Medieval Period. During this phase, a surficial clay cover was deposited on the island of Schokland (World Heritage Site: Noordoostpolder, northern Flevoland). We have studied the clay sequence in order to reconstruct the island’s flooding history during the last 1200 years. The depositional history of the youngest clay deposit on Schokland is inferred from a literature study, analyses of a digital elevation model, six coring transects, three new 14C accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates and laboratory analyses. The laboratory analyses include thermogravimetric analysis, grain-size end-member modelling (unmixing grain-size distributions), foraminifera, bivalves and ostracods. The geological data were...

In Medieval times the city of Vlaardingen (the Netherlands) was strategically located on the confluence of three rivers, the Meuse, the Merwede and the Vlaarding. A church of early 8th century was already located here. In a short period of time Vlaardingen developed into an international trading place, the most important place in the former county of Holland. Starting from the 11th century the river Meuse threatened to flood the settlement. These floods have been registered in the archives of the fluvisol and were recognised in a multidisciplinary sedimentary analysis of these archives. <br><br> To secure the future of this vulnerable soil archive currently an extensive interdisciplinary research (76 mechanical drill holes, grain size analysis (GSA), thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA), archaeological remains, soil analysis, dating methods, micromorphology, and microfauna has started in 2011 to gain knowledge on the sedimentological and pedological subsurface of the mound ...

This study analyzes the records of several trace metals sensitive to redox conditions in continental shelf sediments off Concepción, Chile (36°S). The continental margin off Concepción (36°S; 73°W) lies beneath an important upwelling center characterized by high primary production rates and, consequently, high fluxes of organic matter. In spring and summer, this material settles to the seafloor where it decays, producing periods of very low oxygen content in bottom waters (<1 mL L À1). In addition, an oxygen minimum zone develops at $100-400 m water depth, where dissolved oxygen levels are <0.5 mL L À1. This situation changes during strong El Niño events, when dissolved oxygen at the bottom increases drastically (>1 mL L À1). The goals of this study were to determine the input of trace metals to the sediment and to decipher how this information can be used to reveal variations in primary productivity or bottom oxygenation. Gravity cores collected at two stations-VG06-2 over the mid-shelf station (88 m water depth, upper boundary of the oxygen minimum zone) and VG06-3 over the outer shelf (120 m water depth, within the oxygen minimum zone)-were sampled for high resolution profiles (1 cm) of trace metals, biogenic opal, stable isotopes, and total organic carbon. The results suggest that the variability in the trace metal distribution on the continental shelf off Concepción is determined by redox conditions and the organic carbon flux to the bottom. Some sections of the sediment cores from the outer shelf showed appreciable authigenic enrichment of U, Cd, and Mo (EF: 5-10, 2-5, and 10-16 respectively) along with heavier values of d 15 N, suggesting periods of suboxic conditions. During these periods, fluxes of organic material to the bottom were higher, as indicated by elevated TOC and opal contents. Alternating periods of higher and lower trace metal contents were not observed mid-shelf as they were on the outer shelf. Rather, the mid-shelf samples showed authigenic enrichment of U, Cd, and Mo (EF: 1-6, 4-5, and 10-20, respectively) throughout the core except in a 10-cm-thick gray layer. In general, authigenic enrichment of U, Mo, and Cd occurred at both sites, coincident with olive green layers in the cores. These layers were associated with periods of elevated primary productivity and suboxic conditions. Such periods did not seem to last as long as the oxygenated periods, which had higher inputs of refractive detrital material, coincident with the occurrence of distinct gray sediment layers.

The abandonment of LBA Serbian Banat settlements between 1250 and 1150 BC raises important questions regarding the factors that may have contributed to that process.
New LBA settlements continue to be discovered through satellite images and surveys, which seem to indicate that they were connected in a dense network. These settlements emerged around 1500 BC, in a period that coincides with the abandonment of MBA tells. Varying in size and layout, some of them achieved considerable size, with several being surrounded by ditches and ramparts.
Yet, something changed around 1200 BC, leading to the settlements’ abandonment for more than 200 years. Were the environmental conditions, that allowed these communities to settle and prosper in this area, no longer favourable?
Following what seems to be a similar path to the Terramare culture of the Southern Po Valley (Italy), with the flourishing and decline occurring at similar periods, we look for evidence of environmental changes through sediment deposition analyses that can shed
some light into this question.

Prior to the maximum southward extension of the Fennoscandian ice sheet (MIS 6, ∼150 ka) the central Netherlands was part of a large delta which was inhabited by hunter-gathers. The Middle Palaeolithic flint artefacts left by these early inhabitants of the central Netherlands occur in ice-pushed ridges surrounding the Gelderse Vallei area. These ridges contain pushed alluvial deposits from the rivers Rhine and Meuse. Given the occurrence of the Middle Palaeolithic flint artefacts in the ice-pushed ridges surrounding the Gelderse Vallei area and the knowledge that the ice-pushed ridges continue into the subsurface of Flevoland, we hypothesize that the area of Middle Palaeolithic habitation has a northward extension, via the study area towards the mouth of the river Rhine into a proglacial lake in the current North Sea Basin. To test this hypothesis we have analysed high-quality coring data of pushed Rhine and Meuse alluvial deposits in the subsurface of Almere and correlated to the Middle Palaeolithic artefact-bearing layer exposed in quarries in the Gelderse Vallei area.

Flevoland (central Netherlands) is an area of long-term discontinuous deposition that has been reclaimed from the Zuiderzee in the 20th century. Before the reclamation, the Zuiderzee had been in a phase of enlargement, threatening inhabitants on the islands and the shores, since the Medieval Period. During this phase, a surficial clay cover was deposited on the island of Schokland (World Heritage Site: Noordoostpolder, northern Flevoland). We have studied the clay sequence in order to reconstruct the island’s flooding history during the last 1200 years. The depositional history of the youngest clay deposit on Schokland is inferred from a literature study, analyses of a digital elevation model, six coring transects, three new 14C accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates and laboratory analyses. The laboratory analyses include thermogravimetric analysis, grain-size end-member modelling (unmixing grain-size distributions), foraminifera, bivalves and ostracods. The geological data were...

Prior to the maximum southward extension of the Fennoscandian ice sheet (MIS 6, ∼150 ka) the central Netherlands was part of a large delta which was inhabited by hunter-gathers. The Middle Palaeolithic flint artefacts left by these early inhabitants of the central Netherlands occur in ice-pushed ridges surrounding the Gelderse Vallei area. These ridges contain pushed alluvial deposits from the rivers Rhine and Meuse. Given the occurrence of the Middle Palaeolithic flint artefacts in the ice-pushed ridges surrounding the Gelderse Vallei area and the knowledge that the ice-pushed ridges continue into the subsurface of Flevoland, we hypothesize that the area of Middle Palaeolithic habitation has a northward extension, via the study area towards the mouth of the river Rhine into a proglacial lake in the current North Sea Basin. To test this hypothesis we have analysed high-quality coring data of pushed Rhine and Meuse alluvial deposits in the subsurface of Almere and correlated to the Middle Palaeolithic artefact-bearing layer exposed in quarries in the Gelderse Vallei area.

Bones, teeth and invisible tracers. The current state of human bioarchaeological isotope geochemical research in The Netherlands Lisette M. Kootker & Gareth R. Davies On the 'Quartzite Palaeolithic' of the Naarder Eng (Huizen, the Netherlands). Relevance of a quartzite Neolithic axe find Marco Langbroek Flooded, flattened and rebuilt archaeological sites. The case of strategic inundations during the Eighty Year's War and how the archaeology developed after reclamation of the landscape Adriaan M.J. de Kraker Many shades of brown. The condition and colour of Dutch archaeological textiles from dryland sandy soils, bogs, and the sea Ineke Joosten & Maarten R. van Bommel Carbon and nitrogen isotopic variation in bone collagen within the human skeleton

The history of the Amstel and Vecht rivers in the central part of the Netherlands during the Holocene has been debated for a considerable time (Bos et al., 2009; De Bont, 1994, 2000, 2008; De Bont & Kleij, 2012; De Gans, 2011; De Gans & Bunnik, 2011, 2012). Many publications in different disciplines have made their contribution to solve issues such as initiation and cessation of river flow, different and opposing river flow directions, and different chronologies.

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 ero...

Flevoland (central Netherlands) is an area of long-term discontinuous deposition that has been reclaimed from the Zuiderzee in the 20th century. Before the reclamation, the Zuiderzee had been in a phase of enlargement, threatening inhabitants on the islands and the shores, since the Medieval Period. During this phase, a surficial clay cover was deposited on the island of Schokland (World Heritage Site: Noordoostpolder, northern Flevoland). We have studied the clay sequence in order to reconstruct the island’s flooding history during the last 1200 years. The depositional history of the youngest clay deposit on Schokland is inferred from a literature study, analyses of a digital elevation model, six coring transects, three new14C accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates and laboratory analyses. The laboratory analyses include thermogravimetric analysis, grain-size end-member modelling (unmixing grain-size distributions), foraminifera, bivalves and ostracods. The geological data were ...

van der Valk, Ad J.F. van der flood risk Extracting storm-surge data from coastal dunes for improved assessment of Email alerting services articles cite this article to receive free e-mail alerts when new www.gsapubs.org/cgi/alerts click Subscribe to subscribe to Geology www.gsapubs.org/subscriptions/ click Permission request to contact GSA http://www.geosociety.org/pubs/copyrt.htm#gsa click official positions of the Society. citizenship, gender, religion, or political viewpoint. Opinions presented in this publication do not reflect presentation of diverse opinions and positions by scientists worldwide, regardless of their race, includes a reference to the article's full citation. GSA provides this and other forums for the the abstracts only of their articles on their own or their organization's Web site providing the posting to further education and science. This file may not be posted to any Web site, but authors may post works and to make unlimited copies of items in GSA's journals for noncommercial use in classrooms requests to GSA, to use a single figure, a single table, and/or a brief paragraph of text in subsequent their employment. Individual scientists are hereby granted permission, without fees or further

Rising sea levels due to climate change can have severe consequences for coastal populations and ecosystems all around the world. Understanding and projecting sea-level rise is especially important for low-lying countries such as the Netherlands. It is of specific interest for vulnerable ecological and morphodynamic regions, such as the Wadden Sea UNESCO World Heritage region. Here we provide an overview of sea-level projections for the 21st century for the Wadden Sea region and a condensed review of the scientific data, understanding and uncertainties underpinning the projections. The sea-level projections are formulated in the framework of the geological history of the Wadden Sea region and are based on the regional sea-level projections published in the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR5). These IPCC AR5 projections are compared against updates derived from more recent literature and evaluated for the Wadden Sea region. The projecti...

Flevoland (central Netherlands) is an area of long-term discontinuous deposition that has been reclaimed from the Zuiderzee in the 20th century. Before the reclamation, the Zuiderzee had been in a phase of enlargement, threatening inhabitants on the islands and the shores, since the Medieval Period. During this phase, a surficial clay cover was deposited on the island of Schokland (World Heritage Site: Noordoostpolder, northern Flevoland). We have studied the clay sequence in order to reconstruct the island’s flooding history during the last 1200 years. The depositional history of the youngest clay deposit on Schokland is inferred from a literature study, analyses of a digital elevation model, six coring transects, three new14C accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates and laboratory analyses. The laboratory analyses include thermogravimetric analysis, grain-size end-member modelling (unmixing grain-size distributions), foraminifera, bivalves and ostracods. The geological data were ...

Deeply stratified settlements are a distinctive site type featuring prominently in diverse later prehistoric landscapes of the Old World. Their massive materiality has attracted the curiosity of lay people and archaeologists alike. Nowadays a wide variety of archaeological projects are tracking the lifestyles and social practices that led to the building-up of such superimposed artificial hills. However, prehistoric tell-dwelling communities are too often approached from narrow local perspectives or discussed within strict time-and culture-specific debates. There is a great potential to learn from such ubiquitous archaeological manifestations as the physical outcome of crosscutting dynamics and comparable underlying forces irrespective of time and space.

The spatial distribution of porosity and permeability of the Rupel Clay Member is of key importance to evaluate the spatial variation of its sealing capacity and groundwater flow condition. There are only a limited number of measured porosity and permeability data of the Rupel Clay Member in the onshore Netherlands and these data are restricted to shallow depths in the order of tens of metres below surface. Grain sizes measured by laser diffraction and SediGraph R in samples of the Rupel Clay Member taken from boreholes spread across the country were used to generate new porosity and permeability data for the Rupel Clay Member located at greater burial depth. Effective stress and clay content are important parameters in the applied grain-size based calculations of porosity and permeability. The calculation method was first tested on measured data of the Belgian Boom Clay. The test results showed good agreement between calculated permeability and measured hydraulic conductivity for depths exceeding 200 m. The spatial variation in lithology, heterogeneity and also burial depth of the Rupel Clay Member in the Netherlands are apparent in the variation of the calculated permeability. The samples from the north of the country consist almost entirely of muds and as a consequence show little lithology-related variation in permeability. The vertical variation in permeability in the more heterogeneous Rupel Clay Member in the southern and east-southeastern part of the country can reach several orders of magnitude due to increased permeability of the coarser-grained layers.

One of the outstanding problems of palaeoclimate reconstruction from physico-chemical properties of terrigenous deep-sea sediments stems from the fact that most basin fills are mixtures of sediment populations derived from different sources and transported to the site of deposition by different mechanisms. Conventional approaches to palaeoclimate reconstruction from deep-sea sediments do not distinguish between provenance and dispersal-related variations, and therefore