Abstract
The Quaternary deposits of the Mediterranean countries provide clear evidence of past environments, and of environmental change. Modern work enables the reinterpretation of these deposits and shows arid glacial stages and humid interglacial stages, with the Holocene characterised by considerable human impact, mostly resulting from agricultural activity. In this paper, examples of typical Mediterranean Quaternary lithofacies, including tufa and slope, fluvial, coastal, aeolian and cave deposits are described from the Maltese Islands. The deposits are correlated and their climatic signal is interpreted to provide a first modern assessment of Quaternary environmental change in the Maltese Islands.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
AIQUA: Bibliography for the Quaternary in Italy. Il Quaternario 1, 1–90 (1988).
Allegrucci, F.; Biondi, E.; Fulton, R.; Housley, R.; Hunt, C.; Stoddart, S.: Vegetation, landuse and climate. In: Malone, C.; Stodart, S. (eds.), Territory, Time and State: The Archaeological Development of the Gubbio Basin, pp. 34–58. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1994.
Anketell, J. M.; Ghellali, S. M.; Gilbertson, D. D.; Hunt, C. O.: Quaternary wadi and floodplain sequences of Tripolitania, northwest Libya: a synthesis of their stratigraphic relationships, and their implications for landscape evolution. In: Lewin, J.; Macklin, M. G.; Woodward, J. C. (eds.), Mediterranean Quaternary River Environments, pp. 231–244. Balkema, Rotterdam 1995.
Barker, G. W. W.; Hunt, C. O.: Quaternary valley floor erosion and alluviation in the Biferno valley, Molise, Italy: the role of tectonics, climate, sea level change and human activity. In: Woodward, J. C.; Macklin, M. G.; Lewin, J. (eds.), Mediterranean Quaternary River Environments, pp. 145–157. Blakema, Rotterdam 1995.
Bertolani Marchetti, D.; Accorsi, C. A.; Pelosio, G.; Raffi, S.: Palynology and stratigraphy of Plio-Pleistocene sequence of Stirone River (Northern Italy). Pollen et Spores 21, 149–167 (1979).
Blouet, B.: The Story of Malta. Progress Press, Malta 1989.
Bonnatti, E.: North Mediterranean climate during the last Wurm glaciation. Nature 209, 984–985 (1966).
Bottema, S.; Entjes-Nieborg, G.; Van Zeist, W. (eds.): Mans Role in the Shaping of the Eastern Mediterranean Landscape. Balkema, Rotterdam 1990.
Coude-Gasson, G.; Olive, P.; Rognon, P.: Datations de depots loessiques et variations climatiques a la bordure nord du Sahara algero-tunisien. Revue de Geologie dynamique et Geographie physique 24, 61–73 (1983).
Coude-Gasson, G.; Rognon, P.; Rapp, A.; Nihlen, J.: Dating of peridesert loess in Matmata (S. Tunisia) by radiocarbon and T.L. methods. Zeitschrift fur Feomorphologie 31, 129–144 (1987).
Dramis, F.: Periglacial Geomorphology. Il Quaternario 1, 45–46 (1988).
Evans, J. D.: The Prehistoric Antiquities of the Maltese Islands. London 1971.
Follieri, M.; Magri, D.; Sadori, L.: 250,000-year pollen record from the Valle di Castiglione (Roma). Pollen et Spores 30, 329–356 (1988).
Fontes, J. C.; Gasse, F.; Callot, Y.; Plaziat, J. C.; Carbonel, P.; Dupeuple, P. A.; Kaczmarska, I.: Freshwater to marine-like environments from Holocene lakes in northern Sahara. Nature 317, 608–610 (1985).
Giusti, F.; Manganelli, G.; Schembri, P.: The non-marine molluses of the Maltese Islands. Torino, Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali, Monografie XV (1995).
Horowitz, A.: The Quaternary of Israel. Academic Press, New York 1979.
Hunt, C.: The natural landscape and its evolution. In: Barker, G. W. W. (ed.), A Mediterranean Valley: Landscape Archaeology and Annales History in the Biferno Valley, pp. 62–83. Leicester University Press, Leicester 1996.
Hunt, C. O.; Gibertson, D. D.; Donohue, R.: Palaeoenvironmental evidence for agricultural soil erosion from late Holocene deposits in the Montagnola Senese, Italy. In: Bell, M.; Boardman, J. G. (eds.), Past and Present Soil Erosion: Archaeological and Geographical Perspectives, vol. 22, pp. 163–174. Oxbow Monographs, Oxford 1992.
Lewin, J.; Macklin, M. G.; Woodward, J. (eds.): Mediterranean Quaternary River Environments. Balkema, Rotterdam 1995.
Pedley, M.: The occurrence and sedimentology of a Pleistocene travertine in the Fiddien Valley, Malta. Proceedings of the Geologists Association 91, 195–202 (1980).
Pedley, M.; Andrews, J.; Ordonez, S.; del Cura, M. A. G.; Martin, J.-A. G.; Taylor, D.: Does climate control the morphological fabric of freshwater carbonates?: a comparative study of Holocene barrage tufas from Spain and Britain. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 121, 239–257 (1996).
Pedley, M.; Bosence, D.; Dart, C.; Pratt, S.: Tectonic and stratigraphic evolution of the Maltese Islands. In Bosence, D. (ed.), Field Guide to the Cainozoic Platform Carbonates of the Maltese Islands, pp. 9–39. International Sedimentological Congress, Nottingham 1990.
Renfrew, J. M.: Cultivated plants from Tarxien Cemetry, Malta. Antiquity 46, 144–146 (1972).
Trechmann, C. T.: Quaternary conditions in Malta. Geological Magazine 75, 1–26 (1938).
Van Andel, T. J.; Runnels, C.: After the Acropolis. Stanford University Press, Stanford 1987.
Vita Finzi, C.: The Mediterranean Valleys. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1969.
Zammit Maempel, G.: An Outline of Maltese Geology. Malta 1977.
Zammit Maempel, G.: A Maltese Pleistocene sequence capped by volcanic tufa. Atti della Societa Toscana di Scienze Naturali Residente in Pisa Serie A 88, 243–260 (1982).
Zammit Maempel, G.: Ghar Dalam Cave and Deposits. Malta 1989.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hunt, C.O. Quaternary deposits in the Maltese Islands: a microcosm of environmental change in Mediterranean lands. GeoJournal 41, 101–109 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006824605544
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006824605544