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Pleistocene sea-levels in North Devon

1960; Elsevier BV; Volume: 71; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0016-7878(60)80006-5

2773-0743

Muriel A. Arber,

Geological formations and processes

The ancient sea-cliffs of the North Devon coast are terraced by erosion surfaces which have already been described and attributed to the Pliocene by Professor Balchin. Two lower surfaces are now described: the Hele Surface (approximately 150 feet to about 100 feet O.D.) and the Croyde Surface (about fifty feet O.D.). Both these surfaces cut, and therefore post-date, the periglacial deposit of head. Such high sea-levels as those responsible for the Hele and Croyde Surfaces belong more probably to an Interglacial than to the Post-glacial period, and it is therefore suggested that the head was formed during the Penultimate Glaciation. The age of the buried channels of the Torridge and Taw is considered, and it is concluded that they may be older than the Penultimate Glaciation. The glacial erratics of Barnstaple Bay, and the neighbouring glacial Fremington Clay, underlie the head, and thus they too may belong to an older Glaciation than the Penultimate.