Early Pleistocene Tiglian sites in the Netherlands A revised view on the significance for quaternary stratigraphy

Lateglacial and early Holocene vegetation development and fluvial system changes in the northern Meuse valley, the Netherlands: a review of palynological data

This study provides an overview of existing palynological and chronological data of the northern Meuse valley which have been collected over recent decades. The palynological data were used to make a vegetation reconstruction in time and space for the Lateglacial and early Holocene. The vegetation development is strongly influenced by the rapid...

The mineralogy of suspended matter, fresh and Cenozoic sediments in the fluvio-deltaic Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt–Ems area, the Netherlands: An overview and review.

Minerals are the building blocks of clastic sediments and play an important role with respect to the physico-chemical properties of the sediment and the lithostratigraphy of sediments. This paper aims to provide an overview of the mineralogy (including solid organic matter) of sediments as well as suspended matter as found in the Netherlands ...

The implications of K-Ar glauconite dating of the Diest Formation on the paleogeography of the Upper Miocene in Belgium

The glauconite-rich Diest Formation in central and north Belgium contains sands in the Campine subsurface and the hilly Hageland area that can be distinguished from each other. The Hageland Diest Sands member contains no stratigraphically relevant fossils while in the Campine subsurface dinoflagellate cysts are common and show a stratigraphic...

3D geology in a 2D country: Perspectives for geological surveying in the Netherlands

Over the last ten to twenty years, geological surveys all over the world have been entangled in a process of digitisation. Their paper archives, built over many decades, have largely been replaced by electronic databases. The systematic production of geological map sheets is being replaced by 3D subsurface modelling, the results of which are...

Pleistocene Rhine-Thames landscapes: Geological background for hominin occupation of the southern North Sea region

This paper links research questions in Quaternary geology with those in Palaeolithic archaeology. A detailed geological reconstruction of The Netherlands' south-west offshore area provides a stratigraphical context for archaeological and palaeontological finds. Progressive environmental developments have left a strong imprint on the area's...

Silica sand resources in the Netherlands

Silica sand, (almost) pure quartz sand, is a valuable and scarce mineral resource within the shallow Dutch subsurface. High-grade deposits are exploited in the southeastemmost part of the country, as raw material for the glass, ceramic, chemical and other process industries. Dutch land-use policy requires that scarce mineral resources (including...

The Rhine - A major fluvial record

This special issue contains the papers presented during the 2004 DEUQUA meeting. The papers provide an overview of recently carried out Quaternary geological studies on different aspects of the river Rhine system. The introductory paper follows the pathway of the Rhine downstream from its source in the Swiss Alps to the delta in the Netherlands....

The confluence area of Rhine, Meuse, and Belgian rivers: Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene fluvial history of the northern Lower Rhine Embayment

The fluvial history of the northern Lower Rhine Embayment shows interplay of three main river systems: Rhine, Meuse and smaller rivers draining the central and northern part of Belgium. The Pliocene and Early Pleistocene (pre-)Rhine and Meuse river systems had their conjunction in the southern part of the Roer Valley Graben between Aachen and...

Remarks on the palynology-based chronostratigraphical subdivision of Pliocene terrestrial deposits in NW-Europe

The chronostratigraphical subdivision of the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene as applied in terrestrial deposits of Central and NW-Europe largely relies on the pollen analytical investigations. This subdivision is almost entirely based on the interpretation of quantitative changes of the vegetational cover as recorded by the pollen content of...

Introduction of the boxtel formation and implications for the quaternary lithostratigraphy of the Netherlands

Application of the traditional lithostratigraphic framework to subdivide the Middle- and Upper-Quaternary locally-derived fine-grained deposits in the Netherlands is problematic. Deposits of many formations cannot be distinguished from each other based on lithological characteristics and stratigraphic position alone. To overcome this problem, we...

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...