SOIL REPORT ON THE HULLBRIDGE PROJECT, ESSEX: THE SITES OF PURFLEET, THE STUMBLE & OTHERS ON THE BLACKWATER RIVER.
Author(s): R I Macphail
A soil micromorphological study was carried out on six sites. The investigation was an attempt to characterise early prehistoric soils in coastal river valleys now buried by estuarine peats and silts. The results are poor because estuarine inundation and associated saline salts caused leaching and dispersion of fine material in the soils, altering them to soils of the intertidal zone, that now may also contain sodium carbonate, pyrite and gypsum. Nevertheless, it can be suggested, that at Purfleet the molluscan woodland fauna may only have been established late on during the terrestrial period of the site, whereas the Blackwater sites, including the Stumble, had long established truly terrestrial soils. The report is supported by two figures, one table and seventeen colour plates.
- Report Number:
- 39/1990
- Series:
- AML Reports (New Series)
- Pages:
- 30
- Keywords:
- Soil/Sediment
