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Mineralogical evidence for sediment derivation and ice movement within the Wash drainage basin, eastern England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

R. D. Wilmot
R. D. Wilmot*
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, 64 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8NG
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Abstract

The Wash drainage basin contains four principal river systems. Samples were collected from the freshwater and estuarine reaches of each of these, and silt- and clay-grade fractions were separated and examined by XRD. The clay mineralogy of each of the rivers is different; in the north the Witham sediments contain chlorite, the Welland and Nene samples contain vermiculite, with a higher proportion of kaolinite in the former, while in the south the Ouse sediments contain smectite. The clay fractions of the samples from the estuarine reaches all contain chlorite, confirming that non-fluvial sources must contribute to the sediments of the Wash. Comparison of this pattern of clay mineralogy with that for the underlying Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks shows that there was relatively little modification during the Pleistocene glacial periods. Such a pattern supports recent work which suggests that ice moved through the Wash gap and then fanned out from the Fenland area, rather than entering the region from the north.

Type
Research Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , June 1985 , pp. 209 - 220
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1985

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