Two-stage opening of the Dover Strait and the origin of island Britain
Gupta, S.; Collier, J.S.; Garcia-Moreno, D.; Oggioni, F.; Trentesaux, A.; Vanneste, K.; De Batist, M.; Camelbeeck, T.; Potter, G.; Van Vliet-Lanoë, B.; Arthur, J.C.R. (2017). Two-stage opening of the Dover Strait and the origin of island Britain. Nature Comm. 8: 12 pp. https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15101
Late Quaternary separation of Britain from mainland Europe is considered to be a consequence of spillover of a large proglacial lake in the Southern North Sea basin. Lake spillover is inferred to have caused breaching of a rock ridge at the Dover Strait, although this hypothesis remains untested. Here we show that opening of the Strait involved at least two major episodes of erosion. Sub-bottom records reveal a remarkable set of sediment-infilled depressions that are deeply incised into bedrock that we interpret as giant plunge pools. These support a model of initial erosion of the Dover Strait by lake overspill, plunge pool erosion by waterfalls and subsequent dam breaching. Cross-cutting of these landforms by a prominent bedrock-eroded valley that is characterized by features associated with catastrophic flooding indicates final breaching of the Strait by high-magnitude flows. These events set-up conditions for island Britain during sea-level highstands and caused large-scale re-routing of NW European drainage.
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