The superficial sediments of the English Channel and its Western Approaches

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe English Channel and its Western Approaches constitute a 700 km long epicontinental sea located in a temperate environment and in a tectonic setting where subsidence is minimal.A sedimentological survey of this region reveals quite distinct provinces: a central sector (Western Channel) where predominantly bioclastic sediments are widely represented, bounded by two mainly terrigenous‐rich zones, the outer terrace of the Celtic Sea and the Eastern Channel. Lateral sedimentary variations of decreasing grain size are interpreted in terms of current velocity patterns. The various types of such sequences may relate to the degree of mixing of older lithoclastic sediments with the Holocene bioclastic supply.A scenario for the evolution of the recent sedimentation of this epicontinental sea is presented. Starting from a permanent marine zone—at least since the Würm period—that bounds the Bay of Biscay, the Holocene transgression progressed over the English Channel. In the Western Channel earlier terrigenous deposits were gradually overlapped by bioclastic sediments that originated on the pre‐Mesozoic rocky substratum and which were particularly extensive off the Armorican Massif. In the subsequently submerged Eastern Channel the pre‐Holocene clastic source has undergone comparatively less modification and still crops out in most of the area. With the opening of the Straits of Dover, at about 9000 yr BP, submersion was complete and new hydrodynamic conditions developed as the eustatic level stabilized. The present sediment distribution is in harmony with the hydrodynamic setting except on the southern rise of the Celtic Sea where both morphology and sedimentary patterns still largely reflect pre‐Holocene conditions.