Early Holocene drowned lagoonal deposits from the Kattegat, southern Scandinavia

Shallow seismic profiling indicated the presence of a drowned lagoon-barrie r system formed during the transgression of the southern Kattegat, and inve stigations of core material have confirmed this. Studies of plant and anima l macrofossils show that the lagoonal sediments contain a mixture of marine , brackish, lacustrine, telmatic and terrestrial taxa, and analyses of fora minifers indicate brackish-water conditions. Low oxygen isotope values obta ined on shells of marine molluscs also point to lowered salinity. The lagoo nal sediments are situated at depths between 24 and 35 m below present sea level. They are dated to between c. 10.5 cal. ka BP and c. 9.5 cal. ka BP, and reflect a period characterized by a moderate relative sea level rise. T he lagoonal sediments are underlain by lateglacial glaciomarine clay and si lt, which are separated from the Holocene deposits by an unconformity. The earliest Holocene sediments consist of littoral sand with gravel, stones an d shells; these sediments were formed during the transgression of the area before the barrier island-lagoon system was developed. The lagoonal sedimen ts are overlain by mud, which contains animal remains that indicate increas ing water depths.