Eustatic and hydrodynamic controls on the architecture of a deep shelf sand bank (Celtic Sea).

The architecture of a tidal sand bank in the south-eastern Celtic Sea was examined using very high-resolution seismic surveys. The bank comprises four depositional units. The lowest unit 1 is characterized by gently dipping (1–8°) strata that strike parallel to the length of the bank. Unit 1 is erosionally overlain by unit 2, which forms the bulk of the bank. This unit consists of stacked sets of downcurrent-dipping (7–12°) master bedding formed by climbing, sinuous-crested tidal dunes that are up to 20 m high. These deposits are locally incised by an anastomosed channel network (unit 3) that may represent a buried swatchway system. The upper part of the bank comprises wave-related deposits that are mainly preserved on the bank flanks (unit 4). The outer bank surface is erosional. The bank is believed to have formed during the last post-glacial sea-level rise. The facies evolution from unit 1 to unit 3 indicates an upward increase in tidal energy, mainly characterized by the thickening of dune cross-bed sets in unit 2. The majority of bank growth is inferred to have occurred in water depths of the order of 60 m. This evolution was controlled by relative sea-level rise, which is likely to have caused an episode of tidal resonance with associated strong tidal currents that were responsible for the incision of the deep, cross-cutting channels of unit 3. The transition to wave-dominated sedimentation in unit 4 is related to the decay of resonance with continued sea-level rise

Campagne Seamewe 1: Reconnaissance de trace de cable sous-marin en Mer rouge

Seamewe 1 cruise has been devoted to the survey of the projected track of a telecommunication cable between Djibouti and Suez. The data include seabeam bathymetric maps at various scales, mud penetrator, magnetic and gravimetric records along the track lines. Temperature measurements, Kullenberg cores, grab samples and sea-floor photographs were performed at several places. Sidescan sonar pictures were recorded in Suez Gulf and over Djibouti shelf

The distribution of scleractinian corals in the Bay of Biscay, NE Atlantic

Studies on the distribution of scleractinian corals in the Bay of Biscay were relatively numerous during the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. Yet, recent reports are scattered, sometimes unpublished, and therefore knowledge about the current coral occurrence in the area is limited. This study aims at compiling the available historical and more recently collected information on the occurrence of scleractinian corals in the Bay of Biscay. Data from two recent cruises are included and compared with previous explored coral sites from as early as 1830 up to 1995. A database of 347 records including 34 described species of scleractinians highlights that the slope of the Bay of Biscay is an important habitat for scleractinians. This could be expected due to the high topographic relief providing the necessary hard substrate and accelerated bottom current flow that corals require. Further exploration of the occurrence and ecology of corals in the area is recommended to support the conservation of cold-water coral reefs along the European margin

The British Late Middle Palaeolithic: An Interpretative Synthesis of Neanderthal Occupation at the Northwestern Edge of the Pleistocene World

The British Middle Palaeolithic is divided into two discrete periods of occupation: the Early Middle Palaeolithic (MIS 9–7, ~330–180 ka BP) and the Late Middle Palaeolithic (MIS 3, ~59–36 ka BP), separated by a long hiatus. Owing to the relative poverty of the record and historical difficulties in dating and correlating archaeological sites, the British Late Middle Palaeolithic has, until recently, received scant attention, and has largely been regarded as the poor man of Europe, especially by British archaeologists. Indeed, there has been more discussion of the absence of humans from Britain than of what they did when they were present. We aim here to redress that situation. Following from recent considerations of the Early Middle Palaeolithic (White et al. in J. Quat. Sci. 21:525–542, 2006; Scott, Becoming Neanderthal, Oxbow, Oxford, 2010), we offer an interpretative synthesis of the British Late Middle Palaeolithic, situating ‘British’ Neanderthals in their chronological, environmental and landscape contexts. We discuss the character of the British record, and offer an account of Neanderthal behaviour, settlement systems and technological practices at the northwestern edge of their known Upper Pleistocene range. We also examine the relationship of the enigmatic Early Upper Palaeolithic leafpoint assemblages to Neanderthals