New OSL dating of UK loess : indications of two phases of Late Glacial dust accretion in SE England and climate implications

Windblown dust deposits or loess, locally known in the UK as brickearth, blanket many parts of southern England outside the limits of the British and Irish Ice Sheet. The best-studied loess exposures occur in Kent, southeast England, where the deposits are believed to be Late Glacial in age. New sed...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Quaternary Science
Main Authors: Clarke, M.L., Milodowski, Antoni, Bouch, Jonathan, Leng, Melanie, Northmore, Kevin
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Wiley 2007
Subjects:
Online Access:http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/3463/
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/2507/home
https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.1061
Description
Summary:Windblown dust deposits or loess, locally known in the UK as brickearth, blanket many parts of southern England outside the limits of the British and Irish Ice Sheet. The best-studied loess exposures occur in Kent, southeast England, where the deposits are believed to be Late Glacial in age. New sedimentological evidence is presented for phases of accretion with two distinct units, a calcareous brickearth exhibiting periglacial cryoturbation and a non-calcareous, massive brickearth. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating has been applied to chemically isolated modal quartz silts to derive a chronology for sediment accretion and to better understand the palaeoclimatic significance of these deposits.