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A striated, far travelled clast of rhyolitic tuff from Thames river deposits at Ardleigh, Essex, England: evidence for early Middle Pleistocene glaciation in the Thames catchment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2014

J. Rose ,
J.N. Carney ,
B.N. Silva  and
S.J. Booth
J. Rose*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK
J.N. Carney
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK
B.N. Silva
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK
S.J. Booth
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK
*
Email: [email protected] and [email protected].

Abstract

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This paper reports the discovery of an in-situ striated, far-travelled, oversized clast in the Ardleigh Gravels of the Kesgrave Sands and Gravels of the River Thames at Ardleigh, east of Colchester in Essex, eastern England. The morphology, petrography and geochemistry of the clast, and the sedimentology of the host deposit are described. The striations are interpreted, on the basis of their sub-parallelism and the shape and sub-roundedness of the clast, as glacial and the clast is provenanced to Ordovician rocks of the Llŷn and Snowdonia regions of North Wales. On the basis of clast frequency within the Colchester Formation gravels of the Kesgrave Sands and Gravels it is inferred that glaciers reached the Cotswold region of the Thames catchment. Floe-ice transport during spring flood is invoked for movement from the glaciated region to eastern England. The paper discusses the possible age of the glaciation and recognises that it is difficult to be more precise than a cold stage in the early Middle Pleistocene (MIS 18, 16 or 14). Attention is drawn to the possibility of glaciation associated with a diamicton in the region of the Cotswold Hills known as the Bruern Till, but stresses the need for new work on this deposit.

Keywords

Early Middle Pleistocene (MIS 18-14) glaciationWelsh sourced glaciationoversized far-travelled clastOrdovician rhyolitic vitric tufffloe-ice transport
Type
Research Article
Information
Netherlands Journal of Geosciences , Volume 89 , Issue 2 , September 2010 , pp. 137 - 146
Copyright
Copyright © Stichting Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 2010

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