Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1998, Page 261

267
Macrofossil Studies of lacustrine Sediments
from Skálafjørður, the Faroe Islands:
preliminary Results
Makrosteinrenningarrannsóknir av vatnsáløgum
úr Skálafirði í Føroyum: fyribils úrslit
Ole Bennike1, Jens Bocher2, Peter Konradi1, Antoon Kuijpers1 and Birger Larsen1
1: Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Thoravej 8, DK-2400 Copenhagen, Denmark
Phone: +45 38 14 20 00 • Fax: +45 38 14 20 50 • Email: obe@geus.dk
2: Zoological Museum, Universitesparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen 0, Denmark
Úrtak
Ein røð úr Skálafirði í Eysturoy er greinað fyri at finna
makroskopiskar plantu- og djóraleivdir. Røðin inniheld-
ur eitt úrval av plantum og dýrum, sum eru í ósøltum
vatni, men ongar steinrenningar av sjóplantum og -dýr-
um. Røðin vísir sostatt eitt vatnsumhvørvi, og vit koma
til ta niðurstøðu, at tann núverandi gáttarfjørðurin var
eitt vatn, meðan botnsetingin í hesi røð fór fram. Ein
fyribils tíðarskipan bendir á, at vatnið myndaðist beint
eftir avglasiatiónina um 10.000 kolevni 14-ár BP, og
sjógvur fløddi yvir gáttina um 8.000 ár BP; eftir tað var
tað sjógvur. Floran og faunan fevna um nakrar plantur
og nøkur dýr, sum eru nýggj í steinrenningarbiotuni í
Føroyum, og tvey mosadýr, ið liva í ósøltum vatni, sum
higartil ikki hava verið skrásett í Føroyum.
Abstract
A sequence from Skálafjørður on Eysturoy in the Faroe
Islands has been analysed for macroscopical plant and
animal remains. The sequence contains a range of ob-
ligate fresh water plants and animals, and no marine fos-
sils, thus the sequence represents a lacustrine environ-
ment, and we conclude that the present threshold fjord
was a lake during deposition of this sequence. A prelim-
inary chronological framework suggests that the lake
formed just after deglaciation at around 10,000 radio-
carbon years BP, and the threshold was inundated by the
sea around 8,000 years BP, after which marine condi-
tions were established. The flora and fauna comprise a
number of plants and animals that are new to the fossil
biota of the Faroes, and two fresh water bryozoans that
have not been recorded from the archipelago at the pre-
sent time.
Introduction
At several occasions over the past decade
marine geological work has been carried
out in Faroese fjords. Shallow seismic in-
vestigations were carried out by Larsen
(1991), and sediment cores were collected
during cruises of R/V Hákon Mosby in
1988, R/V Pelagia in 1993, R/V Skagerak
in 1995 and R/V Dana in 1997. During the
1995-cruise of R/V Skagerak, surface sedi-
ment was sampled by box coring, and in
addition 10 cores were sampled with a 3-m
piston corer in Skálafjørður and adjacent
waters. The cores retrieved on the cruises
mentioned above contained Holocene ma-
rine sediments (e.g. Juul, 1992; Fleischer,
1997). The only exception is a core, which
was taken in Skálafjørður off Skáli during
Fróðskaparrit 46. bók 1998: 267-275