Submerged Palaeo-Arun and Solent Rivers: Reconstruction of Prehistoric Landscapes

The Submerged Palaeo-Arun and Solent Rivers project was undertaken by the Seafloor Imaging and Processes group at the Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London and funded through the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund as distributed by English Heritage. The overarching aim of the project was to reconstruct the palaeogeomorphology of the extension of the River Arun on the northern English Channel shelf using high-resolution geophysical imaging sonars and to assess the potential for preservation of prehistoric archaeological resources on relict palaeo-landsurfaces and within valley-fill sedimentary deposits. The major objective was to determine the morphology and internal stratigraphy of the offshore extension of the River Arun in order to develop models for the sediment deposit distribution and palaeogeographic evolution of the Arun River during times of lowered sea-levels. The second primary objective of the study was to identify seabed geomorphic elements and sedimentary architectures with potential to contain prehistoric archaeological resources.