A section through Pleistocene deposits and temporary exposures of valley-side and valley-fill Late-glacial and Holocene sediments in the upper Cam valley at Hinxton Genome Campus, Cambridgeshire, UK are described. Stratigraphy, radiocarbon dating and pollen analysis are used to create a model of sediment transport, landscape change and vegetation history at the site. This study offers a new understanding of the stratigraphy and context of the Holocene, Weichselian Late-glacial and earlier Pleistocene deposits of the upper Cam valley, and provides an insight into valley-side sediment transport processes and the three-dimensional sediment architecture of the valley-fill sediments.

87Sr/86Sr (Strontium) ratio analyses of shell material (mainly Arctica islandica) from 24 levels in the Maassluis Formation of boreholes Noordwijk, Zegveld and Terschelling suggest that the age of the formation ranges from 0.82 to 2.34 Ma (± 0.5 Ma), and that the Oosterhout Formation at Noordwijk could be as much as 2.5 Ma older than hitherto assumed.

We investigated fossil small mammals from a borehole near Moriaanshoofd (Zeeland, southwest Netherlands) in order to get better insights in the fossil mammal faunas that are found in the subsurface in the southwestern Netherlands, and to investigate the age and provenance of the mammal fauna that is being dredged from the deep tidal gullies in the nearby Oosterschelde estuary. The record in the borehole covers Gelasian (Early Pleistocene) to Holocene deposits, represented by six formations. Thirty-nine specimens of small mammals were obtained from the borehole. These fossils derived from the Early Pleistocene marine Maassluis Formation and from directly overlying deposits of a Late Pleistocene age. During Weichselian times (33–24 ka), a proto-Schelde River shaped the northern Oosterschelde area. The river reworked substantial amounts of Early and Middle Pleistocene deposits. At the base of the Schelde-derived fluvial sequence (regionally described as the Koewacht Formation), Gelasian vertebrate faunas were concentrated in the channel lag. The Late Pleistocene channel lag is almost certainly the main source for the rich Early Pleistocene vertebrate faunas with larger mammals dredged from the Oosterschelde.

The sedimentological, metamorphic, petrographic and geochemical characteristics of the Armina Formation, part of the Paleoproterozoic Greenstone Belt of Suriname in South America, are described, based on field, geochemical and petrographic evidence obtained through fieldwork along the Marowijne River and study of diamond drill cores from Rosebel Gold Mine (RGM). The metagreywackes show characteristic features of deposition by turbidity currents: coarse-grained, poorly sorted graded greywackes, covered by fine-grained, parallel-laminated phyllitic beds, often with convolute structures and climbing ripples. Their immature character and composition suggest deposition in an arc-trench environment. In the Marowijne River three different facies of metagreywackes are distinguished: (1) the greyish Bonnidoro Falls facies, characterised by common red millimetre-sized pseudomorphs after siderite in the finer beds, (2) the green Paroe Tabiki metagreywacke facies, with decimetre-sized calcsilicate nodules, both metamorphosed in the lower greenschist facies with chlorite as the main mafic mineral, and (3) the grey Armina Falls metagreywacke facies, geochemically similar to the Bonnidoro type but of higher metamorphic grade with biotite as the main mafic mineral. The metagreywackes from the Marowijne River show a predominance of quartz, plagioclase and lithic (tonalitic) clasts, suggesting exhumation of tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite plutons before deposition of the turbidites. There is a slight increase in maturity from (1) to (3), suggesting increasing weathering in the source areas. The metagreywackes of the RGM (JZone) have a predominantly metavolcanic origin, suggesting that they have a different provenance area than the Marowijne metagreywackes. Geochemically the spread in composition within each facies is larger than between the facies because of the wide range in grain sizes in each turbidite sequence. A large part of the rocks from the RGM, classified by previous authors as arenites, are geochemically and petrographically metagreywackes. Only a few RGM samples are real arenites, and plot as a separate cluster in geochemical factor score plots because of their low Fe and Na contents.

The mid-Maastrichtian carbon isotope event (MME), dated at ∼69 Ma, reflects a perturbation of the global carbon cycle that, in part, correlates with the enigmatic global extinction of ‘true’ (i.e., non-tegulated) inoceramid bivalves. The mechanisms of this extinction event are still debated.

While both the inoceramid extirpation and MME have been recorded in a variety of deep-sea sites, little is known about their expression in epicontinental chalk seas. In order to study the shallow-marine signature of the MME in this epicontinental shelf sea, we have generated quantitative foraminiferal assemblage data for two quarries (Hallembaye, NE Belgium; ENCI, SE Netherlands) in the Maastrichtian type area, complemented by a species-specific benthic δ13C record. In contrast to deep-sea records, no significant changes in benthic foraminiferal assemblages and benthic foraminiferal accumulation rates are observed across the MME in the type-Maastrichtian area. At the Hallembaye quarry, the otherwise rare endobenthic species Cuneus trigona reaches a transient peak abundance of 33.3% at the onset of the MME, likely caused by a local transient change in organic matter flux to the seafloor. Nevertheless, high and near-constant species evenness shows that neither oxygen nor organic matter flux was limited across the extinction level or during the MME. Benthic foraminiferal data from the uppermost part of the studied section, above the MME, indicate a significant increase in food supply to the seafloor. Decreased amounts of terrigenous elements across this interval document a lesser riverine or aeolian influx, which means that the increased benthic productivity is linked to a different origin. Potentially, the continuous precipitation of chalk under nutrient-poor conditions in the Late Cretaceous chalk sea was enabled by efficient nutrient recycling in the water column. In shallower depositional settings, nutrient recycling took place closer to the seafloor, which allowed more organic matter to reach the bottom. These results provide insights in the importance of nutrient cycling for biological productivity in the NW-European chalk sea.

On 26 June 2018 Waldo Heliodoor Zagwijn died at the age of 89. He was an Emeritus Professor of the Faculty of Earth Sciences, Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. As a geologist, palynologist and palaeobotanist he focused on developing a stratigraphy of the Netherlands based on changes in vegetation and climate. The Dutch setting of a subsiding basin, and the clear signal of a sequence of glacial–interglacial cycles, was promising. As early as the late 1950s it became clear that the Quaternary Period included more than the previously assumed four ice ages in the Netherlands. In his PhD thesis Zagwijn defined the start of the Quaternary around 2.5 million years before the present (2.5 Ma). The international community accepted Zagwijn’s arguments after he retired. He showed how the rivers Meuse, Scheldt and Rhine had built the Netherlands in four dimensions. He is the instigator and architect of the climate- and chronostratigraphy of the Quaternary Period of Western Europe.

Soft rock pediments developed in South Moravia in some places as early as the Tertiary, in other places as late as the Pleistocene. Depending on local environmental factors the pediments developed either due to backwearing or downwearing. The most suitable conditions for the evolution of the Pleistocene pediments were during transitional periods between warm and cold climate phases and especially during periglacial conditions between cold and warm periods in the Middle and Late Pleistocene. In agricultural landscapes, the studied relief features continue to develop also at present.

Within the multidisciplinary WASA project, 160 cores up to 5 m long have been obtained from the back-barrier area and off the coast of the East Frisian island of Norderney. Thirty-seven contained basal peats on top of Pleistocene sands of the former Geest and 10 of them also had intercalated peats. Based on 100 acclerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dates and analyses of botanical as well as zoological remains from the peats, lagoonal sediments and the underlying sands, a variety of distinct habitats have been reconstructed. On the relatively steep slopes north of the present island, a swampy vegetation fringe several kilometres wide with carrs of alder (Alnus glutinosa) moved in front of the rising sea upwards of the Geest as it existed then until roughly 6 ka, when the sea level reached the current back-barrier region of Norderney at around −6 m NHN (German ordnance datum). From then on for nearly 4000 years a changing landscape with a mosaic of freshwater lakes and fens existed within this area. It was characterised by various stands of Cladium mariscus (fen sedge), alternating with brackish reed beds with Phragmites australis (common reed) and salt meadows with Aster tripolium (sea aster), Triglochin maritima (sea arrowgrass), Juncus gerardii (saltmarsh rush) as well as mudflats with Salicornia europaea (common glasswort). As far as shown by our cores, this highly diverse, and for humans potentially attractive landscape was at least some 4 km wide and followed the coast for about 10 km. Before the rising sea caused diversification of habitats, wet heath as well as dry and dusty sand areas existed. In the course of time, parts of the wet heath turned into raised Sphagnum bogs under an oceanic precipitation regime before this diverse landscape was drowned by the rising sea and finally covered by marine sediments, while the earlier sediments and peats were partly eroded and redeposited.

This paper provides a concise review of investigations into the Cenozoic stratigraphy of the Danish North Sea Basin. In the Danish North Sea, mainly Pliocene and Pleistocene strata are found. Results of published seismic and sequence stratigraphic analyses are combined with biostratigraphic analyses and correlated to marine formations found onshore.

In the ‘Winterswijksche Steen- en Kalkgroeve’, situated in the eastern Netherlands, Lower Muschelkalk limestones are quarried. A ca. 30 m wide area in the quarry face showing fragmented rock material in chaotic accumulation in between stratified Muschelkalk sediments was interpreted until now to be the result of karstification or tectonic fragmentation. The present investigation indicates that it originated as a subrosion pipe fill that formed by continuous upsection collapse which commenced in the Röt gypsum and anhydrite beds more than 200 m below. The pipe fill is dated probably to one of the Quarternary interstadials when these rocks were dissolved by groundwater at even greater depths.

During several archaeological excavations on a river terrace of the river Meuse near the village of Lomm (southeast Netherlands) information was gathered for a reconstruction of the sedimentation and vegetation history during the Holocene. Various geoarchaeological methods – geomorphological, micromorphological and botanical analyses – were applied, while accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating provided an accurate chronology for the sediments.

During the Early Holocene, many former braided river channels were deepened due to climate amelioration. Later, river flow concentrated in one main river channel to the west, at the location of the modern Meuse. The other channels were only active during floods, and infilling continued until the Bronze Age. Because of the higher setting of the Lomm terrace, it was only occasionally flooded and therefore formed an excellent location for habitation. Humans adapted to the changing landscape, as most remains were found on the higher river terraces or their slopes, a short distance from the Maas river. The Lomm terrace was more or less continuously inhabited from the Mesolithic onwards.

During the Early Holocene, river terraces were initially densely forested with birch and pine. From the Boreal (Mesolithic) onwards, dense mixed forests with deciduous shrubs and trees such as hazel, oak, elm and lime developed. During the Atlantic (Meso/Neolithic), the deciduous forests became dominated by oak. Due to human activities from the Late Subboreal (Late Bronze Age) onwards, forests slowly became more open, yet remained relatively dense in comparison to other Dutch areas. The botanical data, however, show that within the Lomm study area there was a large difference in the composition, distribution and openness of the vegetation. The spatial variation in openness came into existence during the Late Bronze Age, as soon as the higher areas started to be used for human activities (i.e. habitation, agriculture and livestock herding). Due to human activities, the northern part of the study area became very open during the Early Roman period. In the lower-situated areas of the southern part, however, forests remained present much longer, until the Early Middle Ages. Due to large-scale deforestation in the Lomm area and hinterland during the Roman period and Middle Ages, the sediment load of the river increased, large floods occurred and overbank sediments were deposited, burying the archaeological remains. The largest increase in sedimentation occurred after the Middle Ages.

In May 2009, Orson van de Plassche sadly passed away. In a paper of which parts, especially the discussion section, were written after his death, new data and a revision of an existing sea-level curve are presented for the Rotterdam area (Van de Plassche et al., 2010). This comment concerns two topics addressed in the discussion section: 1) connection of their revised Rotterdam relative sea-level curve for the period 7900-5300 cal yr BP (MSL-R2; Jelgersma, 1961; Van de Plassche, 1982; 1995; Berendsen et al., 2007; Van de Plassche et al., 2010) to the sea-level curve for the same area for the period 9000-7500 cal yr BP (MSL-R1; Hijma & Cohen, 2010); 2) The role of the river gradient on the calculation of the magnitude of a sea-level jump that occurred between 8450-8250 cal yr BP (Hijma & Cohen, 2010).

Palaeolandscape reconstructions at the German North Sea coast are essential for the understanding of coastal changes and dynamic landscape-forming processes. This study contributes to reconstructing Holocene coastal changes in the back-barrier area of the East Frisian island of Norderney and draws conclusions on the local palaeogeography. Five sediment cores were analysed in terms of sedimentology (grain-size distribution), geochemistry (TOC, TIC, N, C/N), microfauna (foraminifers and ostracods) and 13 radiocarbon dates. In order to identify driving environmental factors and support the facies interpretation, multivariate statistics (PCA) were carried out. Additional cores from the surrounding area (WASA Project and ‘Landesamt für Bergbau, Energie und Geologie’ (LBEG) Hannover) enabled correlation of the investigated cores over a transect of ~6 km, showing six depositional environments, which can be used for landscape reconstruction. Deposition starts with periglacial (aeolian and glaciofluvial) Pleistocene sediments, with subsequent pedogenesis followed by swamp conditions that develop into a salt marsh. The overlying tidal-flat sediments are partially cut by (fossil and recent) channel deposits. A hiatus at the base of the tidal-flat deposits that spans some 3000 years hints at their reworking caused by a combination of antrophogenic coastal protection measures and the impact of storms. Furthermore, based on the profile correlation and the age data, a widespread salt-marsh area with a minimum age of ~4000 cal BP is defined for the ‘Hohes Riff’ in the southwestern back-barrier of Norderney Island.

Like earth and planetary scientists, most children are curious about the world, the solar system and the rest of the universe. However, for various reasons primary schools emphasise language and calculus rather than natural sciences. When science is taught, examination systems often favour knowledge of the ‘right’ answer over the process of investigation and logical reasoning towards that answer. In order to continue to spark children's curiosity and their motivation to learn and discover, science education hubs at universities and science museums could collaborate more with schools and teachers, and are beginning to do so. The objective of this position paper is to report on recent experiences in earth and planetary science education for pupils in primary and secondary education, to provide examples and inspiration for scientists. We report three examples of initiation and consolidation of science education in primary schools in the Netherlands: (1) a focus on asking questions and seeking information to reason towards the answer, initiated with a classroom game, Expedition Mundus, (2) bringing pupils and teachers together outside their school in the science museum to gain confidence and self-efficacy, and (3) having children ask their own questions and do their own research guided by the empirical cycle, for example on experimentation on sandbox scale models of channels and crater lake deltas as found on Mars. The focus on other planets, fictitious and real, stimulates pupils to ask questions about planet Earth. Finally, we argue that involvement of more scientists in science education would not only benefit primary and secondary schools and future students but also university education and science communication with society.

Here we report on a newly collected, well-preserved vertebral centrum of a plesiosaur from the type area of the Maastrichtian Stage in southern Limburg. The specimen is interpreted as a caudal vertebra that originated from an osteologically immature or juvenile individual, as evidenced by the position of the pedicular facets, the presence of a notochord pit and the absence of fused neural arches. It adds to the meagre record of sauropterygians in the area.

The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), ~55.5 Myr ago, was a geologically brief (~170 kyr) episode of globally elevated temperatures, which occurred superimposed on the long-term late Paleocene and early Eocene warming trend (Fig. 1). It was marked by a 5 – 8° C warming in both low and high-latitude regions, a perturbation of the hydrological cycle and major biotic response on land and in the oceans, including radiations, extinctions and migrations (see overviews in Bowen et al., 2006; Sluijs et al., 2007a).

We started a geochemical mapping campaign in the Early Pleistocene fluviatile Kedichem Formation in the Netherlands in order to meet the demand for more information about subsurface sediment compositions. Geochemical data were collected during a sampling campaign, and about 600 samples from the Kedichem Formation were analyzed. By linking the geochemical data with lithological classifications from the TNO-NITG borehole database, we established a geochemical prediction model.

Elements were divided into classes according to their geochemical behaviour in relation to lithological parameters. For each of the classes, we combined lithological groups in to groups with relevant geochemical differences. By calculating for each element the average composition in each of these groups, we were able to predict the geochemical composition of subsurface sediments by ‘translating’ the spatial lithological data from the TNO-NITG borehole database into geochemical data. We visualized this model by calculating and interpolating the average composition of horizontal slices of the Kedichem Formation. The model performance is fairly good, although it has a tendency to underestimate extreme values.

An isolated, completely ossified vertebra tentatively ascribed to the non-cyamodontid placodont Pararcus diepenbroeki is described from the Anisian Vossenveld Formation in Winterswijk, the Netherlands, and compared to other material from the same locality. This fossil is the first completely ossified vertebra of the taxon and most likely originates from an adult specimen. It was recovered c. 16 m deeper in the stratigraphy than previously described material of the species, which is thus far known only from Winterswijk. Based on the slanting angle of the transverse process, the vertebra is interpreted to originate from the dorsal region. Besides the overall agreements in morphology that warrant a tentative identification as Pararcus diepenbroeki, the newly described vertebra deviates from other known Pararcus vertebrae in the presence of a longer, well-ossified neural spine and a strongly constricted, less pachyostotic and ovaloid vertebral centrum. General agreement in morphology with previously described vertebrae suggests this novel condition indicates a different anatomical position and perhaps a varied ossification pattern.

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 southeasternmost 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 silica sand) are taken into consideration in spatial planning and when preparing for largescale engineering or construction works. For this purpose, and in order to review the long-term possibilities for home production of silica sand, we determined resource potential nationally.

Our approach was (1) to establish the relevant conditions and processes associated with the deposition of the currently exploited sands, (2) identify lithostratigraphic units that are genetically similar or are otherwise known to contain quartz-rich sands, and (3) query the Dutch geological survey's borehole database for potential silica sand occurrences within those units. As we have to rely on non-dedicated data, the latter step was undertaken using a largely qualitative set of lithological search parameters. Finally, a limited number of available chemical analyses was used for preliminary verification purposes.

Using this approach, we identified three prospective areas: one in the north of the province of Limburg and east of the province of Noord-Brabant(~750 km2), one in the central south of Noord-Brabant (~45 km2), and one in the east of the Gelderland and Overijssel provinces (~1,200 km2). For each area, first-order characteristics of possible silica sand resources are presented (type of deposit, depth, approximate thickness). In the terms of current reporting conventions, we resolved silica sand occurrence to the level of ‘reconnaissance mineral resource’ or ‘exploration result’, and our results do not constitute a formal resource declaration. Available chemical data suggest that the resources in the first two areas could be or become economic, although the grades are lower than those of the currently exploited resources. The third area is less promising in that respect, but available data is too limited to reject the area in this stage. Even so, we tentatively conclude that home production of silica sand can probably be maintained after the reserves in Limburg are depleted.

Sedimentological data acquired by thin section petrography is a rich source of information to better understand and interpret depositional environments that are dominated by fine-grained deposits. This study provides an evaluation of the sedimentological and geochemical changes recorded over Upper Viséan to Lower Namurian successions preserved in a core section from a well drilled in the southern part of the Netherlands. Facies analysis and the recognition of microfacies associations allow detailed interpretations of depositional environments. Interpretation of additional geochemical data acquired by portable X-ray fluorescence analyses has resulted in a chemostratigraphic zonation for the core section. The zonation reflects stratigraphic changes in the mineralogy of the sedimentary successions. Integration of the microfacies associations and the chemostratigraphic zonation has led to the identification of three so-called depositional zones, which show the development of depositional settings from Late Viséan to Early Namurian times. Depositional Zone 1 consists of fine-grained turbiditic limestones and mudstones deposited in a distal carbonate ramp setting during Latest Viséan times. The overlying Depositional Zone 2 corresponds to the Geverik Member (Lower Namurian) and is particularly heterogeneous in geochemical and lithological terms: the zone reflects a complex interplay between different parameters such as sediment source, transport mechanisms and oxygen content that are assumed to be governed by fluctuating sea levels and changing depositional environments (from basinal to shallow marine settings). Sandy lenticular mudstones are predominant in the lower part of Depositional Zone 2 and show that sedimentation was via erosive bedload, whilst the common fossiliferous mudstones present within the upper part of the same zone yield evidence for increased endobenthic activity in dysoxic conditions. The successions assigned to Depositional Zone 3 ( = Epen Formation – Namurian) are the products of cyclic sedimentation of a terrestrial sourced delta.