The full programme book (PDF) - Royal Geographical Society

THEME 8: TERRESTRIAL STRATIGRAPHY AND LANDSCAPE EVOLUTION
Terrestrial stratigraphy and landscape evolution
Jim Rose 1,2
1 Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX
2 British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG
Terrestrial Quaternary stratigraphy was, traditionally, the core of Quaternary Science
reflecting the influence of its origins in Geology and Geomorphology, and this part of the
subject has concentrated on reconstructing a history of landscape change involving the
many surface processes, especially glacial, river and coastal processes. However,
whereas other aspects of Quaternary Science, reflected by most of the other topics
considered in the meeting, have progressed over the same time, sometimes beyond
recognition, much of Terrestrial Stratigraphy has progressed little, bringing immense
confusion and little enlightenment. This confusion has been compounded by the desire of
some to burden the subject with convoluted, rapidly changing and un-memorable
stratigraphic terminologies and it is only with the wide acceptance of the value of the
marine isotope record as a template for moderate resolution climate change and reliable,
fine resolution dating technologies, that we have been able to give more attention to
factors that determine the character of terrestrial environments, their range and their
response to change.
This presentation seeks to consider the processes that have determined the nature of
temperate latitude terrestrial environments over the last c. 3 million years and to highlight
some of the methods used to overcome some of the problems listed above.
Firstly a scheme is presented that is based on the processes that act on the land over any
given period of time. It is proposed that the processes operating in any given area are the
product of climate (driver of kinetic energy) modulated by rock type (the resisting agent)
and relief (potential energy, determined by tectonics and antecedent relief-forming
factors). Climate is generalized in terms of the scales and rates of change determined by
orbital forcing, and patterns are proposed for changes during the existence of precession
cycles, obliquity cycles and eccentricity cycles.
Secondly, Middle Pleistocene Glaciations, and Early and early Middle Pleistocene
terrestrial and shallow marine environments are used as an example of the problems that
arise because of the nature of the terrestrial and shallow marine driving forces and the
types of evidence needed to overcome this problem are discussed.
Thirdly attention is given to the BRITICE Project and linked research in order to exemplify
the approaches needed to understand the processes that drive terrestrial change and
provide the information needed to reconstruct some terrestrial environments over a
definable period of eccentricity forcing.
Fourthly attention is given to the nuances of terrestrial change associated with the
Lateglacial and the problems of reconciling different rates and magnitudes of change
when the climate driver changes very rapidly, is conditioned by different antecedent
controls and operates in different ways on different processes. There is nothing special
about this period – it is simply the only period for which we have sufficient temporal detail
and control to investigate the issues.
Finally a plea is made for more cooperation with Geomorphologists in order to understand
and model, at a variety of scales, the processes that drive terrestrial landscape change.
Keywords: Terrestrial stratigraphy; landscape change; climate forcing; Middle Pleistocene
Glaciations; BRITICE Project; Lateglacial.