A Hoxnian interglacial doline infilling at Slade Oak Lane, Denham, Buckinghamshire, England

Abstract

AbstractSite investigations for the M25 motorway at Denham proved a maximum depth of 37.5 m of deposits filling an enclosed hollow up to 40 m across beneath a small seasonally dry valley near Higher Denham. This previously unknown very steepsided hollow is infilled with gravel and sand, partially laminated clayey silt and pebbly clay. Within these deposits a bed of organic clay mud up to 4.5 m in thickness is present. Resistivity survey of the hollow proves that it is completely enclosed.Palaeobotanical investigation shows that the organic sediment contains fossil pollen, spores and macroscopic remains. The pollen spectra indicate that the sediments accumulated during the later half of the Hoxnian interglacial Stage (Ho III/IV). Macroscopic remains include ‘relict’ species Dulichium arundinaceum, and Brasenia schreberi, the latter being new to the Hoxnian Stage. The evidence for waterlevel fluctuation during the interglacial at the site is discussed.The origin of the hollow is considered and the conclusion reached is that it is a doline formed by solution of the underlying Chalk bedrock. The infilling of the basin is attributed to collapse, solifluction and slope wash of local material under cold climates before and after the interglacial. The interglacial sediment is a shallow water pool accumulation. The hollow is thought to have been formed originally as a solution pipe beneath the Thames' Gerrards Cross Gravel, rapid drainage of a neighbouring glacial lake causing the major collapse in the late Anglian Stage. Subsequent infill took place during the later part of the Anglian, Hoxnian and Wolstonian Stages and possibly even later.Heavy mineral analyses of the silt-rich sediment above and beneath the interglacial deposits are appended and indicate that it is almost all of local Reading Beds material.