This book was produced to accompany the QRA Annual Meeting, 2nd-6th April 2006 and International Quaternary Union (INQUA) Field Meeting "Short term sea-level change and coastal vulnerability" project.
In this Field Guide are described sites selected to illustrate the Quaternary of the Somerset Lowlands, Mendip Hills, Bristol District, Avon Valley and adjacent areas – broadly Avon and most of Somerset except Exmoor. This region has considerable significance, since it contains important and unique evidence for Quaternary environmental change. Especially important are evidence of ancient glaciation, of sea level change and of cold-stage extraglacial environments. The area is geologically and geomorphologically complex, with Triassic faulted basins giving rise to extensive. sheltered coastal embayments between horsts of Carboniferous, Devonian and Silurian rocks in the North and central part of the region, and a cuesta landscape developed on Mesozoic rocks in the South and East. The complex setting gives rise to a complex Quaternary record.