Om möjligheterna till datering av nivåförändringarna vid Engelska kanalen

Abstract

In this paper have been discussed some problems with reference to some remarkable alterations during »Post-Glacial« time in the composition of the marine mollusc fauna of SW». Sweden. At about 7,000 B. C. there appear a few lusitanic species in the subfossil mollusc fauna of SW. Sweden. This event coincides with the time when England was cut off from direct connection with the Continent by rise of sea level. As a maximum for the regression during the last advance of the land ice a lowering of the sea level with about at least 50–60 m has been suggested as most probable. In that case a »land-bridge« existed between England and the Continent. With regard to recent investigations of »custatic fluctuations of the sea level as well as «moorlog» and other similar submarine deposits e. g. in the Dogger bank area, it can be established that remains from the youngest layers of terrestrial deposits date from about 7,000 B. C. Accordingly the English Channel area was submerged approximately at about that time and later. That migrations of marine fauna through the English Channel to the western coast of South Sweden can occur, may be illustrated by a recent example, the immigration of Petricola pholadiformis (cf. Hessland 1944). As a help for dating the peat deposits the radiocarbon dating method might be of great importance (cf. Flint and Deevey 1951, Godwin 1951).