PLEISTOCENE POLLEN STRATIGRAPHY FROM BOREHOLE-81 34, DEVILS-HOLE AREA, CENTRAL NORTH-SEA/

Twelve pollen assemblage zones are identified in a 229 m deep borehole (BH 81/34) from the Devil's Hole area in the central North Sea (Briti sh sector). The sediment from this borehole is Early to Late Pleistoce ne in age and the observation of massulae from Azolla filiculoides in sediment with reversed polarity indicates an age younger than the Oldu vai geomagnetic event for the entire sequence. The Early Pleistocene s ediments were at least partly deposited in the vicinity of a river out let and can be correlated either with the Eburonian or the Menapian co ld stage and with the Bavel interglacial and the Linge glacial within the Bavelian stage in the Dutch stratigraphy. The Middle Pleistocene s equence contains an interval rich in Abies, Picea and Pinus, probably deposited during the end of either Cromerian Complex interglacial IV ( Noordbergum) or possibly the Holsteinian. The uppermost 80 m of the co re contains high frequencies of pre-quaternary and deteriorated palyno morphs indicating extensive glacial or glaciofluvially reworked sedime nt. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.