QUATERNARY DEPOSITS AT OXBOW OPENCAST COAL SITE IN THE AIRE VALLEY, YORKSHIRE

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Abstract
Summary: Silts, sands and gravels below the floodplain of the river Aire at Oxbow opencast coal site are described and interpreted. A Lower Sand and Gravel resting on Coal Measures is thought to have had a fluvial origin and to be probably of Weichselian age. The flora and insect fauna of the succeeding Lower Silt indicate a tundra environment and a mammoth tusk from this deposit has yielded a radiocarbon date of about 38,600 years B.P. The characteristics of the overlying Middle Sand and Gravel suggest glacio-fluvial deposition, and it is considered that this deposit and the local terrace deposits may be “outwash” from the Weichselian Aire valley glacier. The flora of the succeeding Middle Silt also suggests a tundra environment. A rockhead ridge associated with an anticline in the Coal Measures has affected the deposition and subsequent disposition of the deposits below the Middle Silt. This anticlinal ridge is considered to be a cryoturbation structure. The Upper Sand and Gravel rests unconformably on the Middle Silt and Middle Sand and Gravel. It is of Flandrian age on the basis of its flora, which includes assemblages correctable with zone VI (later Boreal) and with zone VIIb (Sub-Boreal) or zone VIII (Sub-Atlantic). The succeeding Upper Silt forms the present floodplain surface.

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