Red Clays project

samples

SE 452 766 Sugar Loaf Bay, Somerset, Devonian.

ST6356 Book Barn, Somerset, Triassic.

SPERC - Red Chalk Formation, Speeton, East Yorkshire.

Red soil - Church Hill, Holme-on-Spalding-Moor SE 819 388

ALD2005-1 - brown clay, Aldbrough TA260392

ALD2005-2 - red boulder Clay Aldbrough. TA260392

ALD2005-3 - red clay TA260392

ALD2005-5 - red laminated clay, Aldbrough TA260392

ALD2005VRC - very red clay Aldbrough.

ALDDC - dark clay,Aldbrough TA25917 39362

MAP2005 - red boulder clay, Mappleton, TA 230 434

HORNWBC - weathered boulder clay, Hornsea, TA 21277 46629

HORNRBC - red boulder clay, Hornsea, TA 21184 46941

HORNBC - brown boulder clay, boulder clay, Hornsea, TA 21184 46941

HUCHEM - chalky boulder clay from beneath the Chemistry Dept, University of Hull.

Background:-

The Boulder Clays (or Tills) of Holderness were deposited by the Ice Ages of the late Quaternary by glaciers that had travelled from the Lake District, Scotland, Northern England and Scandinavia. We have evidence for this from the erratic rocks and fossils that can now be found in Holderness (Horne & Harrison 1992, Horne 2000, Rockett 1992). Thin layers of red and grey clay and soft chalk can be seen between the layers of the Tills in the cliffs of Holderness or occarionally as beach exposures. The chalk in these 'rafts' is younger that the chalk exposed in East Yorkshire, and has probably been picked up by the glaciers as they moved across the bed of the North Sea (Horne, ongoing research). The grey clays seem to be of Late Jurassic age, from evidence collected by Stuart Jones.

But what is the origin of the red clays? There are several possibilities :-

• Red Chalk of mid-Cretaceous age from the North Sea
• Red mudstone of Triassic age from the North Sea
• Red rocks of Devonian age
• Red clays of Tertiary age (not seen on shore)
• Red boulder clay from earlier in the Quaternary
• an older boulder clay that has weathered to a red colour and then been scraped up and redeposited by a glacier
• red clays deposited by fresh water in the North Sea area when sea level was low
• red clays deposited in shallow marine conditions in the North Sea area when sea level was low

Can forensic science techniques help solve the mystery?

acknowledgment - Thanks to Gordon Ostler for help with the fieldwork at Aldbrough.

 

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Mike Horne - Tutor

Copyright 2005