The sedimentology, stratigraphy and 14C dating of a turf-banked solifluction lobe: evidence for Holocene slope instability at Okstindan, northern Norway
✍ Scribed by Graham Elliott; Peter Worsley
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 781 KB
- Volume
- 14
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0267-8179
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✦ Synopsis
The stratigraphy of a trench excavated through a solifluction lobe lying at an altitude of 860 m a.s.l. on the eastern flank of the Okstindan mountains is described. Sedimentological evidence suggests that the movement was probably dominated by a flow process, with silty sands episodically bursting-out through a thinly vegetated lobe front in the spring and early summer thaw phases, when pore-water pressures were likely to be increased. A continuous buried soil extends for some 14 m. Fourteen new radiocarbon age estimates from thin-slice samples of this buried soil and organic fractions derived from laboratory pre-treatment procedures are discussed. These data indicate that the solifluction probably commenced in the mid-Holocene and continued throughout the Neoglacial. The slope instability may be correlated tentatively with the record of glacial variations, shifts in tree lines and archaeological evidence, supporting a link with regional climatic deterioration.