Evidence for a Former Transgressive Dune Field: Shetland Islands, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT Kelley, J.T.; Kelley, A.R.; Sorrell, L.; Bigelow, G., and Bampton, M., 2018. Evidence for a former transgressive dune field: Shetland Islands, United Kingdom. Transgressive sand dunes result from a large disturbance of a significant coastal sand dune field. Sand blows landward, covering whatever it encounters, including agricultural fields, forests, or human habitations. This investigation is of a beach-dune system in the Shetland Islands of northern Scotland that is known from historic documents and archaeological excavations to have experienced a sand invasion during the Little Ice Age (LIA). Ground-penetrating radar observations suggest remnants of pre-LIA dunes and buried soils. Excavation of dunes and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of sand deposits confirm historic accounts but also document that the “event” lasted centuries. Geomorphological observations and OSL dates also indicate that earlier events occurred in this region, sometimes in association with known archaeologica...