Stratigraphic evidence for a high marine shore‐line during the late Weichselian deglaciation on the Kullen Peninsula, southern Sweden

Abstract

Mineral magnetic properties and the carbon content of a sediment sequence in Lake Kullatorpssjön on the Kullen Peninsula in northwest Scania, southern Sweden, were investigated. Diatom and ostracod analyses were undertaken for palaeoecological reconstruction and a chronology was constructed from accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating of terrestrial plant remains and mosses. Five stratigraphical units were identified (units 1–5, from oldest to youngest). The two lowermost units consist of clay. The lowest clay unit (1) is strikingly black, 2 m thick and has magnetic properties dominated by high concentrations of authigenic greigite (Fe3S4). In contrast, the overlying clay unit (2) is grey, 1.18 m thick and has magnetic properties dominated by low concentrations of detrital magnetite (Fe3O4). A major palaeoecological change is reflected in the diatom flora and ostracod fauna at the transition from unit 1 to unit 2. The sediment stratigraphy, geochemical, mineral magnetic and palaeoecological analyses also point to a significant change in depositional environment at this transition, which is proposed to represent the isolation of Lake Kullatorpssjön from the Kattegat Sea. Earlier investigations have determined the marine limit to ca. 65 m a.s.1. on the Kullen Peninsula. The separate independent lines of evidence presented here, however, suggest that the Late Weichselian marine limit developed at 85–90 m a.s.l. at the deglaciation ca. 17 200 cal. yr BP (ca. 14 500 yr BP). This limit is ca. 25 m higher than assumed previously. Lake Kullatorpssjön formed ca. 1000 cal. yr later when the basin became isolated from the Kattegat Sea. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.