Abrupt last glacial loess-dust deposition over Southeast England coupled with dynamics of the British-Irish Ice Sheet

Loess deposits are globally important dust archives but are often limited by imprecise chronological control. In particular, loess records adjacent to former ice sheets seldom have detailed, independent age models yet have the potential to elucidate the causes of past high latitude (>50° N in Northern Hemisphere) coarse dust emission close to former ice sheets, a relatively poorly known aspect of past dust dynamics. Loess deposits in southern Britain were formed in close proximity to western parts of the last glacial Eurasian ice sheets. However, currently their age and accumulation rate remain poorly known, limiting interpretation of the controls on last glacial coarse dust emission and deposition in the region.

Here we apply high sampling resolution quartz optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to constrain the timing of dust accumulation and loess formation at the Pegwell Bay site in east Kent, SE England. The OSL ages and Bayesian (Bacon) age modelling results are the most detailed to date for western European loess, and show that loess began to accumulate around c. 25 ka, coinciding with Heinrich event 2 and the coupling of Fennoscandian and British-Irish ice sheets. There were two phases of greatly enhanced dust accumulation at the site, at 25-23.5 ka and 20-19 ka, separated by a lower accumulation rate period. Loess accumulation appears to have stopped or been dramatically reduced after 19-18 ka. We propose that the dynamics of the British-Irish and Fennoscandian Ice Sheets, associated glacial lake drainage, and linked reorganisations of atmospheric circulation, act to control loess accumulation at the site. In particular, we argue that both periods of enhanced dust accumulation were caused by advance-retreat phases of the North Sea ice lobe, and associated drainage of Dogger Lake. These events would have led to abrupt input of sediment-rich ice dammed lake and melt water from northern and eastern England and the North Sea into the exposed southern North Sea basin. This would have dramatically increased sediment availability for transport and deposition as loess in SE England. Easterly and north-easterly winds that could have transported this dust to SE England would have been enhanced by presence of an ice sheet anticyclone, enlarged during Fennoscandian and British-Irish ice sheet coalescence, as well as katabatic winds and easterly flow occurring on the northern side of Atlantic cyclones forced south of southern Britain by the extended western British-Irish ice sheet. As such, last glacial dust dynamics and loess accumulation in Britain is highly influenced by the interaction of the British-Irish and Fennoscandian ice sheets, Atlantic storm tracks, and the topography and drainage of the exposed North Sea basin.