The origin of Maltese cart-ruts : cut by wheels or tools?

The origin and means of formation of the cart ruts of Malta have been matters of debate for almost a century. The principal contenders for rut formation have been wheeled vehicles, sleds, slide cars and cutting with hand tools. Most recent authors have discounted both sleds and slide cars. The former, to be of sufficient magnitude, would create unmanageable amounts of friction, whilst there is neither archaeological nor historical evidence for the latter. The most recent publications on this topic have advocated wheeled vehicles or hand cutting.The former combine field observation of rut form with geotechnical information on rock strength, and conclude that the passage of wheels of, for instance, a two-wheeled cart, would create more than sufficient stress on the rock beneath to cause erosion of the local rock. The latter makes the assertion that 'there is clear evidence of ancient tool marks' , and concludes that cutting by hand played a significant part in rut formation. This conclusion is illustrated by two photographs of field sites showing small-scale rock surface morphologies which are interpreted as ancient tooling marks. The current paper questions such an interpretation, and whether the conclusions derived from it can be sustained by the evidence provided.peer-reviewe

Reconstructing boulder deposition histories: extreme wave signatures on a complex rocky shoreline of Malta

The Żonqor coastline, southeast Malta, displays an exceptional range of geomorphic signatures of extreme coastal events. This paper brings together evidence acquired from a field survey, analysis of time-sequential imagery, and hydrodynamic modelling to investigate the histories of boulder groups identified by their intrinsic and contextual characteristics. Clear differences are revealed between the distribution of boulders recently moved and those of considerable age. Tracking the movement of boulders since 1957 confirms that storms of surprisingly frequent interval are capable of complex boulder movements, including lifting of megaclasts. Scrutiny of the ancient boulders, including weathering features and fascinating landward-facing (reverse) imbrication, cautiously suggests tsunami as the agent for their emplacement. A novel method is developed for depicting the velocity decay profiles of hypothetical waves, which overcomes some of the limitations of the Nott approach. Applied here, the wave run-up context further sets the ancient movers apart from their recent mover companions. The combined evidence implies a palimpsestic landscape where storm waves are regular geomorphic agents that add to and rework the distribution of boulders close to the shoreline, but over long time periods the landscape becomes reset by tsunami—a concept that is of value to agencies in Malta responsible for coastal safety, planning and management

Field testing of Glew and Ford\u27s model of solution flute evolution

Based on a laboratory simulation, Glew and Ford (Earth Surface Processes, 1980, vol. 5, pp. 25–36) put forward a model of solution flute formation which embraces both morphological evolution and time to formation. The occurrence of dated fluted surfaces in the field presents opportunities to test this model. The morphological development of flutes is consistent with the experimental observations in that width stabilizes early whereas depth continues to increase. The time to formation of flutes is confirmed as limestone (103 years)\u3egypsum (102 years)\u3esalt (101 years), and is consistent with the solubility of the main rock‐forming minerals. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd