West Coast Palaeolandscapes

Liverpool Bay as it was …

Photo: RCAHMW

…and as it is now

Clement Reid 1853-1916

Noah’ s WoodsReid had little formal education but, after studying in his spare

time joined the Geological Survey in 1874, became one of the

foremost experts of his time on British geology and

palaeobotany.

His 1913 book on “Submerged Forests” discussed the

extensive evidence for coastal change in Britain.

A wonderful study of the coasts of Britain. From primary observations of fossil remains and “moorlog” (peat deposits) he concluded that…

“The Dogger Bank once formed the northern edge of a great alluvial plain, occupying what is now the southern half of the North Sea”

Shoreline set at 36m bathymetric countour

„Doggerland‟

(Prof. Bryony Coles)

"We were halfway between the two North

buoys in mid-channel between the Leman and

Ower..... I heard the shovel strike something. I

thought it was steel. I bent down and took it

below. It lay in the middle of the block which

was about 4 feet square and 3 feet deep. I

wiped it clean and saw an object quite black".

Skipper Pilgrim E. Lockwood

interviewed by Dr H . Muir Evans. 14th March 1932.

The Colinda Harpoon

Photo: Nigel Nayling

Photo: Martin Bell

Submerged Forests

Above Rhyl, Denbighshire

Below Borth, Ceredigion

Foreshore Archaeology. A glimpse of what may

survive beneath the sea.Photos: Martin Bell

Lydstep Haven

Prehistoric footprints of a child with a compared with a modern eight year old.

2D Seismics

3D Seismics

2D seismic data

Interpretation of 2D seismic data with current seabed shown red and two prehistoric river channels outlined in green.

Interpretation of 3D data –

chrono-stratigraphy

The Shotton River

Professor Fred Shotton

(1906-1990)

West Coast

Palaeolandscapes

Pilot Project

2D Lines and 3D Features

2D „hits‟, maximum 40% failure rate in legacy 2D data sets. 14.75% in WCPP main project

Two big problems

Data Availability

&

Resolution

Geophysical data procurement

Bristol Channel

Liverpool Bay

Geophysical data analysis and interpretation

Each individual 3D survey was processed

in Kingdom by Amplitude, Hilbert and

RunningSUM methods, then timesliced at

4 millisecond intervals.

The visible features (high

ground, low ground and

palaeochannels) in each

timeslice were then digitised in

Kingdom

Geophysical data analysis and interpretation

Results of analysis and interpretation of all the 3D surveys