An Early Pleistocene cold marine episode in the North Sea: pollen and faunal assemblages at Covehithe, Suffolk, England

Abstract

Pollen spectra indicating grass‐heath with Empetrum are recorded from a c. 2 m thick Baventian marine clay bed at Covehithe, Suffolk, deposited in a sublittoral to intertidal environment. For the first time arctic assemblages of both foraminifers and molluscs are recorded from this Baventian clay, which is now confirmed as representing the first cold stage of truly glacial intensity in the English marine Early Pleistocene succession.