Aeolian sand deposition in north-west Europe in the last glacial maximum

Much of North-Western Europe, is covered with aeolian sediments which hold key palaeoenvironmental information for areas which were not glaciated but subject to periglacial conditions. This work has been supported by grants from the British Council, Arts and Humanities Research Council and British Society for Geomorphology. To date this work has formed the basis of 22 publications and featured on Radio 4's Making History programme.

Key Outcomes

• A Europe-wide chrono-stratigraphy for aeolian sand (coversand) deposition has been established
• In central Spain, sand sheets found there correlated with the more prevalent north-west European coversands
• On going investigations of both inland and coastal dune systems are amassing data showing strong linkages of dune activity to hydrological changes, periods of increased storminess relating to the North Atlantic oscillations and anthropogenic related disturbance most notably rabbit and sheep grazing
• An intimate relationship between glacial ice limits and aeolian sediments

Recent papers

• Bertran, P., Bateman, M.D., Hernandez, M., Mercier, N., Millet, D. and Tastet, J.-P. (2011). Inland aeolian deposits of southwest France: facies, stratigraphy and chronology. Journal of Quaternary Science, 26(4), 374-388.
  doi:10.1002/jqs.1461
• Bateman, M.D., Buckland, P.C., Whyte, M.A., Ashurst, R.A., Boulter, C., Panagiotakopulu, E. (2011, in press).  Re-evaluation of the Last Glacial Maximum typesite at Dimlington, UK. Boreas.
  doi:10.1111/j.1502-3885.2011.00204.x
• Bateman, M.D., Buckland, P.C., Chase, B., Frederick, C.D. and Gaunt, G.D. (2008). The Late-Devensian pro-glacial Lake Humber: new evidence from littoral deposits at Ferrybridge, Yorkshire, England. Boreas, 37(2), 195-210.
  doi:10.1111/j.1502-3885.2007.00013.x
• Langford, H.E., Bateman, M.D., Penkman, K.E.H., Briant, R.M., Coope, G.R. and Keen, D.H. (2007). Evidence for cold-phase fluvial deposition during marine oxygen isotope stage 7 at Whittlesey, eastern England. Proceedings of the Geological Society, 118, 283-300.
• Bateman, M.D. and Godby, S.P. (2004). Late-Holocene Inland Dune Activity in the UK: A case study from Breckland East Anglia. The Holocene, 14, 579-588.
  SHERPA Archive version (open access)
  doi:10.1191/0959683604hl735rp
• Murton, J.B., Bateman, M.D., Baker, C.A., Knox, R. and Whiteman, C.A. (2003). The Devensian periglacial record on Thanet, Kent, UK. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 14, 217-246.
  doi:10.1002/ppp.442