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'PRE-GLACIAL' QUATERNARY SEDIMENTS FROM TRIMINGHAM, NORTH NORFOLK, ENGLAND

Briant, R.M.1,2, Rose, J.1, Branch, N.P.1, and Lee, J.A.1

1Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX
2Godwin Institute of Quaternary Research, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Downing Place, Cambridge, CB2 3EN

In: Bulletin of the Geological Society of Norfolk 47 (1999) 15-47

Abstract

Pre-glacial sands and gravels are described from coastal exposures at Trimingham, near Cromer, north Norfolk and divided on the basis of sedimentary structures, particle size distribution, clast lithological content, pollen analysis and palaeocurrent directions into six sedimentary facies. The deposits are interpreted as having formed in a shallow marine environment by tidal current flow, with significant fluctuations in water depth and changes of current direction. Indicator lithologies show sediment sources to the coastal system both from the ancestral river Thames, and from an as yet uncharted 'Northern' river. Pollen preserved in fine grained organic sediments in the lower part of the section, and ice-wedge casts from the upper part of the section suggest that the environment changed from a temperate-climate coastal zone fringed with alder-carr backswamp, to a permafrost environment with thermal-contraction patterned ground. The temperate deposits formed during the Cromerian stage and the permafrost structures as part of the early Anglian Barham Soil.

SUMMARY SEDIMENTOLOGICAL DIAGRAM:

Summary of the six main sedimentary facies described from the coastal exposures at Trimingham. Sections T1, 2, and 3 were described and sampled by R.M. Briant in summer 1998, and sections T4 and 5 by J. Rose in December 1995.