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Microfossil analyses and radiocarbon dating of depositional sequences related to Holocene sea-level change in the Forth valley, Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

Marie Robinson
Marie Robinson
Affiliation:
Marie Robinson, Department of Geography and Geology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews Fife KY169ST
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Abstract

Microfossil (pollen and diatom) evidence is presented from sites in the Forth valley, south-central Scotland, where alternating organic and estuarine minerogenic deposits record the influence of the changing Holocene sea level. Radiocarbon dating confirms the age of the Main and Low Buried Beaches, and of the Main Postglacial Transgression, in different parts of the Forth valley. Radiocarbon dates on shells from beds in the carse sediment and a Mesolithic shell midden near Grangemouth relate to the falling sea level in the 4th and 5th millennia BP. Sea-level curves are constructed for the western and eastern Forth valley.

Keywords

Fossil pollendiatom analysisstratigraphyestuarine depositsshoreline displacement
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 84 , Issue 1 , 1993 , pp. 1 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1993

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