Most rivers in Scotland have short streamflow records or are virtually ungauged, and require addi... more Most rivers in Scotland have short streamflow records or are virtually ungauged, and require additional information on floods from historical sources. To date, quantitative flood histories have been discouraged by a paucity of documentary sources, and almost total absence of physical evidence in the form of flood marks on bridges or mills. The approach taken here, on an inland reach of the Beauly River in northern Scotland, was to use a combination of local landmarks and documented flood heights, mapped onto longitudinal and cross-valley surveys. Old maps show that the physical and man-made characteristics of the valley have not changed significantly since c.1800. Valley surveys reflect the documented pattern of flooding, and large floods levels can be pinpointed usually to within 0.5 m. Seven floods >7 m occurred at Struy between 1820 and 2000. The extra effort required by remote areas in Scotland is rewarded by the absence of tidal influence, and possibly lesser long-term hydro...
The Willandra Lakes record of lake levels is key component of the chronostratigraphic framework o... more The Willandra Lakes record of lake levels is key component of the chronostratigraphic framework of southeastern Australia. It is based on the record of oscillating and overflowing lakes in the Willandra Lakes chain, which includes the archaeologically significant Lake Mungo. The lakes are fed by the Lachlan River, which is sourced in the southeastern highlands and flows inland into the semiarid and arid zone. It has long been recognised that the lakes depend upon flow from the Lachlan River, which diverted in the late Pleistocene to construct a number of new channel belts to the south. Flows were progressively diverted as bed sedimentation progressed in Willandra Creek. Today, even large floods do not reach Willandra Lakes. Here, we integrate the fluvial and lacustrine records to construct a regional palaeohydrological record. Fluvial palaeochannel dimensions were reconstructed from augered and electrical resistivity (EM) surveys along Willandra Creek, Middle Billabong Creek, and th...
Excavation of mock graves in sediments of aeolian and fluvial origin were conducted to test the b... more Excavation of mock graves in sediments of aeolian and fluvial origin were conducted to test the bleaching efficiency of grave digging in materials that commonly host ancient burials in Australia. Grave-size pits were dug into Pleistocene aeolian sediments at Willandra Lakes and younger fluvial sediments on the Lachlan River, backfilled, and re-excavated. Samples for optical dating were taken from sediment infilling the mock graves and from the adjacent, undisturbed substrate, and analysed using the single aliquot-regenerative dose (SAR) protocol applied to single quartz grains. The resulting equivalent dose (De) distributions revealed that ≤1% of grains had been fully zeroed in both settings, and an additional 1-6% of poorly bleached grains were apparent in the fluvial sediments. Insufficient and heterogeneous bleaching of sediments during excavation and backfilling produced a decrease in the central dose of between 3 and 6 Gy, and an increase in over-dispersion values of between 5 ...
Abstract Temperate Australia sits between the heat engine of the tropics and the cold Southern Oc... more Abstract Temperate Australia sits between the heat engine of the tropics and the cold Southern Ocean, encompassing a range of rainfall regimes and falling under the influence of different climatic drivers. Despite this heterogeneity, broad-scale trends in climatic and environmental change are evident over the past 30 ka. During the early glacial period (∼ 30–22 ka) and the Last Glacial Maximum (∼ 22–18 ka), climate was relatively cool across the entire temperate zone and there was an expansion of grasslands and increased fluvial ...
Most rivers in Scotland have short streamflow records or are virtually ungauged, and require addi... more Most rivers in Scotland have short streamflow records or are virtually ungauged, and require additional information on floods from historical sources. To date, quantitative flood histories have been discouraged by a paucity of documentary sources, and almost total absence of physical evidence in the form of flood marks on bridges or mills. The approach taken here, on an inland reach of the Beauly River in northern Scotland, was to use a combination of local landmarks and documented flood heights, mapped onto longitudinal and cross-valley surveys. Old maps show that the physical and man-made characteristics of the valley have not changed significantly since c.1800. Valley surveys reflect the documented pattern of flooding, and large floods levels can be pinpointed usually to within 0.5 m. Seven floods >7 m occurred at Struy between 1820 and 2000. The extra effort required by remote areas in Scotland is rewarded by the absence of tidal influence, and possibly lesser long-term hydro...
The Willandra Lakes record of lake levels is key component of the chronostratigraphic framework o... more The Willandra Lakes record of lake levels is key component of the chronostratigraphic framework of southeastern Australia. It is based on the record of oscillating and overflowing lakes in the Willandra Lakes chain, which includes the archaeologically significant Lake Mungo. The lakes are fed by the Lachlan River, which is sourced in the southeastern highlands and flows inland into the semiarid and arid zone. It has long been recognised that the lakes depend upon flow from the Lachlan River, which diverted in the late Pleistocene to construct a number of new channel belts to the south. Flows were progressively diverted as bed sedimentation progressed in Willandra Creek. Today, even large floods do not reach Willandra Lakes. Here, we integrate the fluvial and lacustrine records to construct a regional palaeohydrological record. Fluvial palaeochannel dimensions were reconstructed from augered and electrical resistivity (EM) surveys along Willandra Creek, Middle Billabong Creek, and th...
Excavation of mock graves in sediments of aeolian and fluvial origin were conducted to test the b... more Excavation of mock graves in sediments of aeolian and fluvial origin were conducted to test the bleaching efficiency of grave digging in materials that commonly host ancient burials in Australia. Grave-size pits were dug into Pleistocene aeolian sediments at Willandra Lakes and younger fluvial sediments on the Lachlan River, backfilled, and re-excavated. Samples for optical dating were taken from sediment infilling the mock graves and from the adjacent, undisturbed substrate, and analysed using the single aliquot-regenerative dose (SAR) protocol applied to single quartz grains. The resulting equivalent dose (De) distributions revealed that ≤1% of grains had been fully zeroed in both settings, and an additional 1-6% of poorly bleached grains were apparent in the fluvial sediments. Insufficient and heterogeneous bleaching of sediments during excavation and backfilling produced a decrease in the central dose of between 3 and 6 Gy, and an increase in over-dispersion values of between 5 ...
Abstract Temperate Australia sits between the heat engine of the tropics and the cold Southern Oc... more Abstract Temperate Australia sits between the heat engine of the tropics and the cold Southern Ocean, encompassing a range of rainfall regimes and falling under the influence of different climatic drivers. Despite this heterogeneity, broad-scale trends in climatic and environmental change are evident over the past 30 ka. During the early glacial period (∼ 30–22 ka) and the Last Glacial Maximum (∼ 22–18 ka), climate was relatively cool across the entire temperate zone and there was an expansion of grasslands and increased fluvial ...
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