Late Saalian and Eemian deposits in the Amsterdam glacial basin

• Published in: Geologie en mijnbouw Vol. 79; no. 2-3; pp. 147 - 160
• Main Authors: de Gans, Wim, Beets, Dirk J., Centineo, Maria Carla
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.08.2000
• Subjects: ESTRATIGRAFIA; GEOLOGIA; GEOLOGIE; GEOLOGY; GLACIAL DEPOSITS; LACUSTRINE DEPOSITS; NETHERLANDS; PAISES BAJOS; PAYS BAS; PLEISTOCENE SOILS; STRATIGRAPHIE; STRATIGRAPHY; barrier deposits; washover deposits; varves; lake deposits; dropstones; compaction; Eemian; Saalian; lake level; shallow-marine deposits; Amsterdam glacial basin
• ISSN: 0016-7746; 1573-9708
• DOI: 10.1017/S0016774600021685

During its maximum extension, the Saalian ice cap reached into the central Netherlands, where glacier tongues excavated over 100 m deep basins in the unconsolidated Middle and Early Pleistocene sediments. The basins are filled by relatively thick successions of Late Saalian, Eemian and Weichselian sediments. The fill of the Amsterdam glacial basin is among the best known and studied in the Netherlands. The Late Saalian sediments consist mainly of warves and ill-bedded clays and silts with, along its southern margin, influxes of sands from the surrounding ice-pushed ridges. During deposition of these sediments, the Amsterdam basin formed part of a large lake extending into the present North Sea. Draining of this lake at the end of the Late Saalian left small, shallow pools at the site of the glacial basins. Late Saalian and Eemian sediments are probably separated by a short break, although sedimentation may have been continuous in the deepest part of the basin. The Eemian deposits consist in main lines of a thin, diatom-rich sapropel at the base, overlain by an up to 30 m thick clay-rich sequence covered by a wedge of sand that measures more than 20 m in the northern part of the basin and that peters out southwards. As appears from the fauna, most of the clays were deposited in a lagoonal setting shielded behind a threshold and/or barrier. The rate of sediment supply was low so that lagoonal conditions were maintained over a long timespan. Sands derived from the surrounding ice-pushed ridges and transported by longshore drift and tidal currents formed a spit at the northern margin of the basin, which moved southward after eustatic sea-level rise stabilized and the lagoon was filled by clay. Loading of this clay-rich sequence by the spit and its washover fans induced subsidence, however, because of compaction, so that marine conditions were maintained until after the Eemian highstand. Fluvial and eolian sediments of Weichselian age, locally reaching a thickness of almost 10 m, eventually levelled the Amsterdam glacial basin.