Catastrophic flooding origin of shelf valley systems in the English Channel

Sanjeev Gupta (), Jenny S. Collier, Andy Palmer-Felgate and Graeme Potter
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Sanjeev Gupta: Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
Jenny S. Collier: Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
Andy Palmer-Felgate: Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
Graeme Potter: UK Hydrographic Office, Admiralty Way, Taunton, Somerset TA1 2DN, UK

Nature, 2007, vol. 448, issue 7151, 342-345

Abstract: Britain out of Europe... Britain became geographically isolated from continental Europe when high interglacial seas flooded the shallow English Channel and North Sea shelf areas. But a tenuous link remained: the Weald–Artois chalk ridge between southeast England and northwest France. Just how this isthmus was breached, making Britain an island, has been a matter of conjecture. A new bathymetric map of the sea floor may solve the mystery. It reveals a large bedrock-floored valley containing landforms, including grooves and streamlined islands, consistent with a megaflood event caused when a rock dam at the Dover Strait breached, draining a large pro-glacial lake in the North Sea basin.

Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1038/nature06018

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