MULTI-PROXY MORPHOLOGICAL AND STRATIGRAPHICAL APPROACHES IN RECONSTRUCTING FORMER HOLOCENE SEA LEVELS: AN EXAMPLE FROM THE CREE VALLEY, SW SCOTLAND, UK

The Cree valley lies towards the margin of the Scottish glacio-isostatic uplift area, and its physical landscapes and deposits reflect subtle changes in relative sea levels during the Holocene. In reconstructing these changes, detailed morphological mapping and survey, together with lithostratigraphical, sedimentological and biostratigraphical techniques, supported by radiocarbon dating, have been employed. The earliest event recorded is an estuarine deposit, abandoned at circa 8300-8600 radiocarbon years BP and correlated with the Low Buried Beach in Scotland. This was followed by a marine transgression which began earlier than 8100 radiocarbon years BP, correlated with the Main Postglacial Transgression. In the Cree area, this event exhibits at least one minor fluctuation, at circa 7200-7400 radiocarbon years BP, and a major fluctuation at circa 6100-6500 radiocarbon years BP which reached an estuarine surface correlated with the Main Postglacial Shoreline, before culminating at circa 5000 radiocarbon years BP in an estuarine surface correlated with the Blairdrummond Shoreline. Relative sea levels then fell, with a minor fluctuation at circa 2500-2900 radiocarbon years BP, before attaining present levels. As the shorelines were reached, barrier systems formed, one of which played an imortant role in the progress of marine transgression and regression.