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A Desk Study & BGS Capability Study in the Severn Estuary, United Kingdom

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A Desk Study & BGS Capability Study in the Severn Estuary, United Kingdom A Desk Study & BGS Capability Study in the Severn Estuary, United Kingdom. Marine Coastal & Hydrocarbons Programme Commercial Report CR/05/088N BRITISH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY MARINE COASTAL & HYDROCARBONS PROGRAMME COMMERCIAL REPORT CR/05/088N A Desk Study & BGS Capability Study in the Severn Estuary, United Kingdom. The National Grid and other Ordnance Survey data are used with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Ordnance Survey licence number G. O. Jenkins, H. Kessler, D. G. Jones & C. V. L. Poulton Licence No:100017897/2004. Keywords Severn Estuary, Geology, Sediments, Multi-beam, Sidescan sonar. Front cover The BGS The Thames Gateway Model (ca 15x15 kilometres) viewed from the southwest with Thurrock in the centre of the block. Bibliographical reference JENKINS, G. O., KESSLER, H., JONES, D. G. & POULTON, C. V. L.. 2005. A Desk Study & BGS Capability Study in the Severn Estuary, United Kingdom.. British Geological Survey Commercial Report, CR/05/088N. 20pp. Copyright in materials derived from the British Geological Survey’s work is owned by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and/or the authority that commissioned the work. You may not copy or adapt this publication without first obtaining permission. Contact the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Section, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, e-mail [email protected] You may quote extracts of a reasonable length without prior permission, provided a full acknowledgement is given of the source of the extract. © NERC 2005. All rights reserved Keyworth, Nottingham British Geological Survey 2005 BRITISH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY The full range of Survey publications is available from the BGS British Geological Survey offices Sales Desks at Nottingham, Edinburgh and London; see contact details below or shop online at www.geologyshop.com Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG The London Information Office also maintains a reference 0115-936 3241 Fax 0115-936 3488 collection of BGS publications including maps for consultation. e-mail: [email protected] The Survey publishes an annual catalogue of its maps and other www.bgs.ac.uk publications; this catalogue is available from any of the BGS Sales Shop online at: www.geologyshop.com Desks. The British Geological Survey carries out the geological survey of Murchison House, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3LA Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the latter as an agency 0131-667 1000 Fax 0131-668 2683 service for the government of Northern Ireland), and of the e-mail: [email protected] surrounding continental shelf, as well as its basic research projects. It also undertakes programmes of British technical aid in geology in developing countries as arranged by the Department London Information Office at the Natural History Museum for International Development and other agencies. (Earth Galleries), Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2DE The British Geological Survey is a component body of the Natural Environment Research Council. 020-7589 4090 Fax 020-7584 8270 020-7942 5344/45 email: [email protected] Forde House, Park Five Business Centre, Harrier Way, Sowton, Exeter, Devon EX2 7HU 01392-445271 Fax 01392-445371 Geological Survey of Northern Ireland, Colby House, Stranmillis Court, Belfast, BT9 5BF 028-9038 8462 Fax 028-9038 8461 Maclean Building, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford, Oxfordshire OX10 8BB 01491-838800 Fax 01491-692345 Sophia House, 28 Cathedral Road, Cardiff, CF11 9LJ 029–2066 0147 Fax 029–2066 0159 Parent Body Natural Environment Research Council, Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon, Wiltshire SN2 1EU 01793-411500 Fax 01793-411501 www.nerc.ac.uk CR/05/088N; Final 1.0 Last modified: 2008/10/01 15:26 Contents Contents...........................................................................................................................................i Summary.......................................................................................................................................iii 1 Introduction............................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Regional Setting.............................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Sediment Transport in the Bristol Channel & Severn Estuary....................................... 2 1.3 Sea level rise................................................................................................................... 2 1.4 Climate............................................................................................................................ 3 2 Capability................................................................................................................................ 3 2.1 Offshore Mapping Techniques ....................................................................................... 3 2.2 3D Modelling.................................................................................................................. 7 3 BGS Data................................................................................................................................. 9 Appendix 1 ................................................................................................................................... 12 References .................................................................................................................................... 13 i CR/05/088N; Final 1.0 Last modified: 2008/10/01 15:26 FIGURES Figure 1. Multibeam image of a sand wave field in the Outer Bristol Channel........................................4 Figure 2. Sediment and biological sampling using a Van Veen grab in the Outer Bristol Channel............5 Figure 3. Sediment sampling (shallow cores and grab samples) in the Clyde Estuary using a hovercraft. .6 Figure 4. GSI3D simple workflow.......................................................................................................8 Figure 5. The Thames Gateway Model (ca 15x15 kilometres) viewed from the south-west with Thurrock in the centre of the block..............................................................................................................9 Figure 6. Map showing the extent of BGS offshore data in the Inner Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary. Taken from the Bristol Channel 1:250k sea bed sediment map. ....................................................10 Figure 7. Map showing the general distribution of coast-proximal borehole records held by BGS (SOBI – Single Onshore Borehole Index). Boreholes in green are 0-10m in depth, blue are 10-30m in depth, red are 30m+, and black represents boreholes with an unknown terminal depth. ............................11 ii CR/05/088N; Final 1.0 Last modified: 2008/10/01 15:26 Summary This report provides an environmental background to the Inner Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary, coupled with a summary of the British Geological Survey’s capabilities in offshore data collection and interpretation. It has been prepared as part of a joint tender with the Museum of London Archaeology Service (MoLAS), to be submitted to English Heritage. The aim of the project is to assess the current state of knowledge relevant to the historic environment in relation to aggregate extraction in the Severn Estuary, and to make recommendations for further work. iii CR/05/088N; Final 1.0 Last modified: 2008/10/01 15:26 1 Introduction 1.1 REGIONAL SETTING The Inner Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary is situated between the coastlines of South Wales and North Devon and Somerset. The coastline surrounds a major submarine valley system that connects the estuary of the River Severn to the Celtic Sea. In the outer Bristol Channel depths reach 50-60m, shallowing eastwards to 10-20m in the inner Bristol Channel. The present day morphology of the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary formed following marine inundation of a former river valley system, incised into the Triassic and Jurassic rocks. The Severn Estuary and inner Bristol Channel broadly conform in shape and position to the Severn Estuary Fault Zone, which is known to have been active (dextral strike-slip) in early Carboniferous times (Wilson et al., 1988). The bedrock outcropping on the floor of the inner Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary, and that underlying the post-glacial estuarine sediments, is dominated by the soft, gypsiferous mudrocks with thin sandstones of the late Trias, and by the weak, shallow marine shales thinly interbedded with concretionary limestones of the Lias (Lower Jurassic) (Allen, 1990). Palaeozoic sediments only outcrop locally. Well-lithified sandstones and mudrocks of the Old Red Sandstone (Devonian) occur in the Minehead-Porlock are, along the coast of Clevedon, near Cardiff (with some Silurian rocks), and along each bank of the inner estuary at Lydney and Sharpness. The many small outcrops of strong, well-jointed Carboniferous Limestone mainly represent hills on the sub-Triassic unconformity surface (Allen, 1990). The remnants of four fluvial terraces (Kidderminster, Main, Worcester, Power House) of Devensian age (Mitchell et al., 1973) border the Severn Estuary. Gradually descending downstream, the Main and younger terrace deposits are closely associated stratigraphically with the post-glacial estuarine sediments, especially in the outer and middle estuary (Allen, 1990). The bedrock surface supporting the estuarine sediments has the general morphology of a broad, flat-floored, outer valley into which the Severn and its tributaries
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