Investigation of coastal environmental change at Ruddons Point, Fife, SE Scotland

Abstract

Ruddons Point, on the Firth of Forth coastline, Scotland, is a laterally extensive terrace of glacial and marine sediment deposits raised above current sea-level, situated near to Kincraig Point, a key site that records a series of stepped erosional platforms carved into the local bedrock, interpreted as post Last Glacial Maximum palaeoshorelines. The deposits at Ruddons Point continue inland, with exposures of the raised sands and gravels cut by the local river, the Cocklemill Burn. The site provides an opportunity to examine the depositional history through the Late Devensian and Holocene. Geophysical survey aided in interpreting characteristics of subsurface sediments such as the transition between the younger saltmarsh sediments and older underlying sands and clays below, which slope in a northerly direction. A chronology obtained through optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating spans from c. 29 ka for sands and clays at an elevation of −0.66 mOD to surface windblown sands at <300 years, at an elevation of 8.45 mOD. A basal peat, dated by radiocarbon dating to the early Holocene at c. 9.2 ka, formed prior to the Main Postglacial Transgression. Dating of inland raised marine deposits along the Cocklemill Burn records dates ranging from c. 8.9 to c. 4.3 ka. The raised marine deposits of Ruddons Point range from c. 8.1 to c. 2.9 ka, deposited unconformably on glacial tills and clays. This multidisciplinary field study builds depositional scenarios utilizing two dating methods, spanning the last c. 29 ka, to better understand coastal evolution for a region which has experienced complex relative sea-level variations. Supplementary material : Supplementary data related to this research article is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6080999 Thematic collection: This article is part of the Early Career Research collection available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/topic/collections/early-career-research