Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T18:54:47.700Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Eemian stratotype locality at Amersfoort in the central Netherlands: a re-evaluation of old and new data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2016

P. Cleveringa ,
T. Meijer ,
R.J.W. van Leeuwen ,
H. de Wolf ,
R. Pouwer ,
T. Lissenberg  and
A.W. Burger
P. Cleveringa*
Affiliation:
Netherlands Institute of Applied Geoscience TNO – National Geological Survey, PO Box 80015, 3508 TA UTRECHT, the Netherlands
*
1 e-mail: p.cleveringa@nitg.tno.nl
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In order to obtain a better understanding of the infilling of the Saalian glacial basins during the Eemian, particularly following the recent research in the Amsterdam Basin (Terminal borehole), it was necessary to re-investigate the type locality of the Eemian at Amersfoort. Both published and unpublished data from various biota (diatoms, foraminifers, molluscs, ostracods, pollen) provide new information on the changing sedimentary environments during the Eemian. Although the organic and clastic sediments of the infilling represent nearly all the pollen zones, the sedimentary sequence at Amersfoort is discontinuous: four breaks at least are recognised at the type locality.

The successive sedimentary environments and the breaks in the record are linked with the transgression of the Eemian sea, the topographic position at the margin of an ice-pushed ridge, and the changes in hydrodynamic conditions. Local conditions, such as a sandy sea bed, shallow water and a reduced water exchange near the North Sea margin, influenced the salinity of the basin. Rib counts of Cerastoderma edule shells indicate a higher salinity at the end of the Taxus (E4b) and the beginning of the Carpinus (E5) zones than that present in the modern North Sea. Local conditions were responsible for the higher salinity following the climate optimum.

During the Abies phase (the later part of regional pollen zone E5), the sea level had already fallen. The change from eu-trophic peat growth (with Alnus and Salix) to an oligotrophic Ericaceae/Sphagnum community at the end of the Eemian resulted from the change from a marine to a fresh-water environment, probably coherent with a deterioration of the climate.

Keywords

biostratigraphyclimateEemian stratotypefaunafloralithologypalaeoenvironmentsea level
Type
Research Article
Information
Netherlands Journal of Geosciences , Volume 79 , Issue 2-3 , August 2000 , pp. 197 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © Stichting Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 2000

References

De Beaulieu, J.L. & Reille, M., 1992. Long Pleistocene pollen sequences from the Velay Plateau (Massif Central France), 1. Rib-ains Maar. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 1: 223–242.Google Scholar
De Gans, W., De Groot, Th. & Zwaan, H., 1987. The Amsterdam basin, a case study of a glacial basin in the Netherlands. In: van der Meer, J.J.M. (ed.): Tills and glaciotectonics. Proceedings of an INQUA symposium on genesis and lithology of glacial deposits (Amsterdam, 1986): 205–216.Google Scholar
De Gans, W., Beets, D.J. & Centineo, M.C., 2000. Late Saalian and Eemian deposits in the Amsterdam glacial basin. In: Van Kolf-schoten, Th. & Gibbard, PL. (eds.): The Eemian – local sequences, global perspectives. Geologie en Mijnbouw / Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 79: 147–160 (this issue).Google Scholar
Eisma, D., 1965. Shell-characteristics of Cardium edule L. as indicators of salinity. Netherlands Journal of Sea Research 2: 493–540.Google Scholar
Eisma, D., Mook, W.G. & Laban, C., 1981. An early Holocene tidal flat in the Southern Bight. International Association of Sedimen-tologists Special Publication 5: 229–237.Google Scholar
Haake, F.W., 1962. Untersuchungen an der Foraminiferen-Fauna im Wattgebiet zwischen Langeoog und dem Festland. Meyniana 12:25–64.Google Scholar
Jelgersma, S. & Breeuwer, J.B., 1975. Toelichting bij de kaart glaciale verschijnselen gedurende het Saalien, 1 : 600.000. In: Zagwijn, W.H. & Van Staalduinen, C.J. (eds.): Toelichting bij geo-logische overzichtskaarten van Nederland. Rijks Geologische Dienst (Haarlem): 93–103.Google Scholar
Jessen, K. & Milthers, V., 1928. Stratigraphical and paleontological studies of interglacial fresh-water deposits in Jutland and Northwest Germany. Danmarks Geologiske Undersøgelse II Raekke 48: 1–379.Google Scholar
Jorissen, F.J., 1988. Benthic foraminifera from the Adriatic Sea; principles of phenotypic variation. Utrecht Micropaleontological Bulletin 37: 176 pp.Google Scholar
Knudsen, K.-L., 1982. Foraminifers. In: Olausson, E. (ed.): The Pleistocene/Holocene boundary in south-western Sweden. Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning C 794: 148–177.Google Scholar
Knudsen, K.-L., 1985. Foraminiferal faunas in Eemian deposits of the Oldenbüttel area near the Kiel Canal, Germany. Geologi-sches Jahrbuch A 86: 27–47.Google Scholar
Konradi, P.B., 1976. Foraminifera in Eemian deposits at Sten-sigmose, southern Jutland. Danmarks Geologiske Undersogelse II Raekke 105:55 pp.Google Scholar
Koulman, J.G. & Wolff, W.J., 1977. The Mollusca of the estuarine region of the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt in relation to the hydrography of the area. V. The Cardiidae. Basteria 41: 21–32.Google Scholar
Lutze, G., 1965. Zur Foraminiferen-Fauna der Ostsee. Meyniana 15:75–142.Google Scholar
Matoba, Y., 1970. Distribution of Recent shallow water foraminifera of Matsushima Bay, Miyagi Prefecture, Northeast Japan. Science ReportsTohoku University Series 2 42: 1–85.Google Scholar
Murray, J.W., 1971. An atlas of British Recent foraminifers. Heine-mann (London): 244 pp.Google Scholar
Penney, D.A., 1989. Microfossils (Foraminifera, Ostracods) from an Eemian (last interglacial) tidal flat sequence in South-West Denmark. Quarternary International 3/4: 85–91.Google Scholar
Richter, G., 1967. Faziesbereiche rezenter und subrezenter Wat-tensedimente nach ihren Foraminiferen-Gemeinschaften. Senck-enbergiana Lethaea 48: 291–355.Google Scholar
Tebble, N., 1966. British bivalve seashells. British Museum (London): 212 pp.Google Scholar
Tzedakis, P.C., 1999. The last climatic cycle at Kopais, central Greece. Journal of the Geological Society of London 156: 425–434.Google Scholar
Tzedakis, PC., & Bennett, K.D., 1995. Interglacial vegetation succession a view from southern Europe. Quarternary Sience Reviews 14:967–982.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uffenorde, H., 1982. Zur Gliederung des klastischen Holozäns im mittleren und nordwestlichen Teil der Deutschen Bucht (Nord-see) unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Foraminiferen. Eiszeitalter und Gegenwart 32: 177–202.Google Scholar
Van Andel, T.H. & Tzedakis, P.C., 1996. Palaeolithic landscapes of Europe and environs, 150.000-25.000 years ago: an overview. Quarternary Science Reviews 15: 481–500.Google Scholar
Van Benthem Jutting, T., 1943. Mollusca (I) C. Lamellibranchia. Fauna van Nederland: 12. A.W. Sijthoff’s Uitgeversmaatschappij N.V (Leiden): 477 pp.Google Scholar
Van der Vlerk, I.M. & Florschütz, F., 1953. The palaeontological base of the sub-division of the Pleistocene in The Netherlands. Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschap-pen le reeks, 20 (2): 1–58.Google Scholar
Van Leeuwen, R.J., Beets, D., Bosch, J.H.A., Burger, A.W., Cle-veringa, P., Van Harten, D., Herngreen, G.F.W., Langereis, C.G., Meijer, T., Pouwer, R. & De Wolf, H., 2000. Stratigraphy and integrated facies analysis of the Eemian in the Amsterdam-Terminal borehole, the Netherlands. In: Van Kolfschoten, Th. & Gibbard, P.L. (eds.): The Eemian – local sequences, global perspectives. Geologie en Mijnbouw / Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 79: 161–196 (this issue).Google Scholar
Van Voorthuysen, J.H., 1957. Foraminiferen aus dem Eemien (Riss-Würm-Interglazial) in der Bohrung Amersfoort-1 (Locus typicus). Mededelingen van de Geologische Stichting 11: 27–39.Google Scholar
Van Voorthuysen, J.H., 1960. Die Foraminiferen des Dollart-Ems-Estuarium. Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Geologisch Mijn-bouwkundig Genootschap 19: 237–269.Google Scholar
Vermeer-Louman, G.G., 1934. Pollen-analytisch onderzoek van den Westnederlandschen bodem. Ph.D. thesis Amsterdam University: 184 pp.Google Scholar
Zagwijn, W.H., 1961. Vegetation, climate and radiocarbon datings in the Late Pleistocene of the Netherlands. Part I: Eemian and Early Weichselian. Mededelingen van de Geologische Stichting, Nieuwe Serie 14: 15–45.Google Scholar
Zagwijn, W.H., 1983. Sea-level changes in the Netherlands during the Eemian. Geologie en Mijnbouw 62: 437–450.Google Scholar
Zagwijn, WH., & Van Staalduinen, C.J. (eds.), 1975. Toelichting bij geologische overzichtskaarten van Nederland. Rijks Geologische Dienst (Haarlem) : 134 pp.Google Scholar