Blog from Larry:

On a September 16 trip to the southeast coast of Norway run by the University of Stavanger we examined (Figure 1) current sedimentary processes: sand at an intermediate energy beach with nearby river supplying sediments, and cobbles on nearby high energy beaches where sediments are not supplied.

We then visited an old vicarage (Ha Prestegard) built on a site which had been land 8,200 years ago and then was near sea level until a few thousand years ago, when the land emerged a few meters above sea level again, and the vicarage was built. Figure 2 shows the fields to the east from the knoll on which the vicarage is built. Figure 3 shows the history of flooding and emergence from the sea. Glaciers had depressed the land and reduced sea levels, and as the glaciers melted the land and sea level rose, but a slightly differing rates at any locality. Sometimes the land uplifted more than sea level rose and the area was above sea level; sometimes the land rose less rapidly than the sea and the land was submerged. Figure 4 shows the sediments exposed in the foundations of the vicarage. The fine sediments at 8,200 years indicate the area was above sea level at that time, and could have been farmed as the area is today. The cobbles from 5,000 to 4,600 years ago indicate the location was near a high energy shoreline, and the areas surrounding the knoll would have been beneath the sea.

Finally we visited a quarry that exposes 70,000 years of earth history. The character of the sediments show that ice moved across this location about 70,000 years ago (lowest ice label), and again about 45,000 and 20,000 years ago. The ages are uncertain with a lot of scatter in the 14C dates, but what is fascinating is the clear evidence that the area was glaciated two and possibly three times during the last ice age. Exposure of sediments as old as 70,000 years (the start of the last ice age) is rare in Norway.

It was a great field trip, with great beach scenery and a wonderful and very international group of students.