Fossil molluscs from borehole Hollum (Ameland, the Netherlands) constrain three successive Quaternary interglacial marine intervals in the southern North Sea Basin

When dealing with stratigraphic successions in marginal basin settings, the geological record is often fragmented due to erosion and reworking processes. The North Sea Basin is an example: it has a fragmented Quaternary record; in particular, Middle Pleistocene intervals are poorly known. As a result, we have little insight into climate, marine...

Late Pleistocene evolution of the Rhine-Meuse system in the southern North Sea basin: Imprints of climate change, sea-level oscillation and glacio-isostacy

High-resolution continuous core material, geophysical measurements, and hundreds of archived core descriptions enabled to identify 13 Late Pleistocene Rhine-Meuse sedimentary units in the infill of the southern part of the North Sea basin (the Netherlands, northwestern Europe). This sediment record and a large set of Optical Stimulated...

The Early Pleistocene Praetiglian and Ludhamian pollen stages in the North Sea Basin and their relationship to the marine isotope record

In this paper, the currently accepted correlation of the Early Pleistocene Ludhamian stage of England with the Tiglian-A sub-stage of the Netherlands is challenged. Recent investigations of Early Pleistocene marine North Sea deposits from a borehole near Noordwijk (the Netherlands) yielded evidence from molluscs, dinoflagellate cysts and...

Nooit meer: Afzettingen van Duinkerke en Calais

Sinds de jaren zestig van de vorige eeuw zijn termen als ‘Afzettingen van Duinkerke’ en ‘Afzettingen van Calais' ingeburgerde begrippen. In de loop van de tijd werden de begrippen niet alleen aan ‘afzettingen’ gekoppeld, maar ook aan de ouderdom van de afzettingen. Uit onderzoek van de afgelopen decennia is gebleken dat die koppeling niet...

Quaternary geological mapping of the lowlands of The Netherlands, a 21st century perspective

Old borehole descriptions, modern lithostratigraphical classification and geostatistics have been combined in recent geological mapping in The Netherlands. Recent developments in geostatistics and the increased computing capacity of personal computers enable three-dimensional geological mapping, based on already available data. The data...

Sedimentary architecture and optical dating of Middle and Late Pleistocene Rhine-Meuse deposits - Fluvial response to climate change, sea-level fluctuation and glaciation

Eight continuous corings in the west-central Netherlands show a 15 to 25 m thick stacked sequence of sandy to gravelly channel-belt deposits of the Rhine-Meuse system. This succession of fluvial sediments was deposited under net subsiding conditions in the southern part of the North Sea Basin and documents the response of the Rhine-Meuse river...

The Eemian stage in the Netherlands: History, character and new research

A historical outline of the Eemian research in the Netherlands is presented as an introduction to recent research in the type area. At the end of the 19th and during the first part of the 20th century, Eemian sediments were recognized because of the presence of lusitanian and mediterranean mollusc species. From 1930 onwards, pollen analysis made...

Stratigraphy and integrated facies analysis of the Saalian and Eemian sediments in the Amsterdam-Terminal borehole, the Netherlands

The Amsterdam glacial basin was a major sedimentary sink from late Saalian until late Eemian (Picea zone, E6) times. The basin's exemplary record makes it a potential reference area for the last interglacial stage. The cored Amsterdam-Terminal borehole was drilled in 1997 to provide a record throughout the Eemian interglacial. Integrated facies...

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

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,...