A palynological investigation of the lower peat in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands

Up till now the lower deposits of peat (in Dutch: veen-op-groterediepte = peat at greater depth) have been investigated in the Netherlands mainly in the Western part of the country, viz. in the provinces of Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland and Zeeland. The analyses have shown that the development of this, now comparatively well known peat layer must have begun either in the second half of the boreal period or else in the beginning of the atlantic one, and that it must have come to an end in the first half of the latter. Among the earlier investigators the botanist Mrs Vermeer-Louman and some geologists had arrived at the conclusion that the sudden transgression of the North sea which made an end to the formation of peat, took place in the boreal period, and that the whole lower deposit of peat, therefore, was of boreal age (lit. 7). This opinion, however, was sufficiently disproved by Florschutz, and all subsequent analyses have confirmed the view that the peat formation must have stopped early in the atlantic period (lit. 2, 3, 4). The same conclusion was arrived at by Godwin as a result of his investigations of the lower peat found in SE England (lit. 5, 6) and by several German investigators as a result of their analyses of the lower peat, found in NW Germany. Only one analyses of the lower peat in the province of Friesland, in the Northern part of the Netherlands, has sofar been published. The geologist van Andel found near Kiesterzijl, at a depth of only 3.50 m a thin layer of peat. He identified it with the lower peat from the W part of the Netherlands which occurs several meters deeper. His two diagrams show a boreal age for the basal layers and an atlantic age for the top ones and they confirm therefore the conclusions,obtained in the W part of the country (lit. 1).