A resedimented interglacial peat ball containing Carpinus pollen within a glacial efflux sequence, Blackwater, Co. Wexford: evidence for part of the last interglacial cycle in Ireland?

Abstract

This paper records the find of a reworked ball of detrital peat that was glacially eroded from terrestrial deposits located to the east or northeast, and subsequently became entombed within a complex deltaic deposit, which was associated with a major glacial efflux venting into standing water during the Late Devensian (Midlandian). The pollen content of the detrital peat is unlike other assemblages in the Irish Pleistocene record, and it represents a temperate stage deposit with a background of thermophilous tree taxa ( Quercus, Fraxinus and Acer ) along with important contributions of the pollen of Pinus, Betula, Picea and Carpinus . The pollen assemblage is unlike any known Gortian assemblages and it is most similar to assemblages recorded from the Late Pleistocene of northwest Europe, in particular those from the latter parts of the Eemian Interglacial. Although the limited data collected preclude a firm correlation to any particular Late Pleistocene stage, it is the first deposit of its kind reported from Ireland and it provides an important indication of the possibility of finding further post-Gortian temperate stage deposits.