Helmut Brückner

• Prof. Dr. rer. nat.
• Professor at University of Cologne

This article examines marine hazards and coastal vulnerabilities in the Mediterranean region, a geologically active area with a long history of devastating events due to a complex tectonic setting, dense coastal populations and extensive infrastructure. It reviews our latest knowledge of Mediterranean earthquakes, tsunamis, submarine landslides, vo...

This geoarchaeological survey was dedicated to (i) the Umm an-Nar (2700-2000 BCE) settlement site of Dahwa and surrounding areas in the foothills of the Hajar Mountains as well as (ii) the coastal area near Saham on the Batinah coastal plain in northern Oman, the latter without focus on a specific cultural epoch. Stratigraphic sections from the pro...

The daily life of non-elite people from the past is usually hard to evaluate, since historical sources largely concentrate on the upper classes. This knowledge can be gained by archaeological excavations and use of geo-and bioarchaeological methods. In 2021, geophysical prospections in Enez (Türkiye) revealed a circular stone structure. The excavat...

In the midlatitudes of the planet, we are facing the imminent disappearance of one of our best high-resolution (pre)historic climate and anthropogenic pollution archives, namely the loss of glacial ice, through accelerated global warming. To capture these records and interpret these vanishing archives, it is imperative that we extract ice-cores fro...

Despite the rising global flood risk, the impacts of flooding remain systematically underestimated, leading to significant consequences for particularly vulnerable river deltas. Most studies focus either on single hazards or social vulnerability while overlooking the interconnected dynamics of deltaic social-ecological systems. In response to the f...

Coastal lowlands and river deltas worldwide are increasingly exposed to coastal, pluvial and fluvial flooding as well as relative sea-level rise (RSLR). However, information about both single and multiple flood-type hazards, their potential impact and the characteristics of areas, population and assets at risk is often still limited as high-quality...

Data for thsi article: Katharina Seeger, Andreas Peffeköver, Philip S.J. Minderhoud, Anissa Vogel, Helmut Brückner, Frauke Kraas, Nay Win Oo, Dominik Brill (2024): Evaluating flood hazards in data-sparse coastal lowlands: highlighting the Ayeyarwady Delta (Myanmar). Environmental Research Letters 19: 084007. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad5b0...

Lake Paravani, located on the volcanic Javakheti Plateau in the central part of the Lesser Caucasus at 2073 m a.s.l., forms a unique geo‐bio‐archive for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions in this remote region. Based on sediment cores from the southwestern part of the lake we expand the existing palynological and sedimentological records beyond th...

Along the lower course of the Rioni and several minor rivers, more than 70 settlement mounds (local name: Dikhagudzuba ) have been identified by field surveys and remote sensing techniques. They give evidence of a formerly densely populated landscape in the coastal lowlands on the Colchian plain (western Georgia) and have been dated to the Bronze A...

2023): FABDEM V1-0 adjusted for the Ayeyarwady Delta in Myanmar by local spot height data from topographic maps. https://zenodo.org/records/7875856https://zenodo.org/records/78758562023): Assessing land elevation in the Ayeyarwady Delta (Myanmar) and its relevance for studying sea level rise and delta flooding. EGUsphere [preprint], https://doi.org...

With their low lying, flat topography, river deltas and coastal plains are extremely prone to relative sea level rise and other water-related hazards. This calls for accurate elevation data for flood risk assessments, especially in the densely populated Southeast Asian deltas. However, in data-poor countries such as Myanmar, where high accuracy ele...

Rock surface luminescence dating has emerged as a powerful geochronological tool; however, the method requires lithologies containing sufficient amounts of quartz or feldspar grains. The application of burial dating to fluvial cobbles, containing only sparse amounts of feldspars, is evaluated in calcarenite cobbles collected in the Mula valley, Spa...

The well-known 1755 CE Lisbon tsunami caused widespread destruction along the Iberian and northern Moroccan coastlines. Being affected by the powerful 1755 CE Lisbon tsunami, the southwestern Algarve shelf provides environments for detecting offshore tsunami imprints. Our multidisciplinary investigations (hydroacoustics, sedimentology, geochemistry...

With their low lying, flat topography, river deltas and coastal plains are extremely prone to relative sea level rise and other water related hazards. This calls for accurate elevation data for flood risk assessments, especially in the densely populated Southeast Asian deltas. However, in data-poor countries such as Myanmar, where high accuracy ele...

The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing...

Phoenicians were the first to systematically develop the area surrounding the Strait of Gibraltar at the end of the 9th century B.C. Following pioneering studies in the Río Guadiaro estuary (Málaga/Cádiz) in the 1980s, a German‐Spanish cooperation project focussed on the role of indigenous people in the Phoenician colonisation trading networks at L...

Dating the construction of dry-stone walls is challenging since such structures are typically built without any mortar that can be used for dating. Rock surface luminescence dating is a developing dating method that could advance chronological insights from structures constructed using dry-stone techniques. This study explores rock surface luminesc...

Land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) dynamics significantly impact deltas, which are among the world’s most valuable but also vulnerable habitats. Non-risk-oriented LULCCs can act as disaster risk drivers by increasing levels of exposure or vulnerability or by reducing capacity. Making thematically detailed long-term LULCC data available is cruci...

The Roman fish-salting industry in the Western Mediterranean was concentrated in a high-risk geological area as regards extreme wave events. It underwent a significant and sudden decline and reorganisation between the second and third centuries AD. The few explanations that have been hitherto offered for this abrupt transformation range from politi...

Over the past decades, substantial progress has been made in tsunami research. Be that as it may, little is still known about tsunami deposits and their related depositional mechanisms in coastal areas in historical and archaeological contexts. In particular, the Phoenician, Greek and Roman trade and military networks along the Mediterranean and At...

Luminescence dating has become a key tool in studies of the Quaternary. The typically stable luminescence response of quartz grains and the absence of a significant internal dose, make quartz minerals the preferred dosimeter for monitoring the burial dose in sediments. Unfortunately, the reliability of conventional OSL (optically stimulated lumines...

Soil formation under hyperaridity is governed by the limited availability of water, biotic activity, and unfavourable soil properties, which results in a group of taxa subsumed under Aridisols according to the USDA soil taxonomy. In the Atacama Desert, previous investigations have focussed on the hyperarid core of the desert, describing and identif...

Sabkhas are key landforms along the southern coast of the Arabian Gulf and represent modern analogues for depositional and diagenetic processes controlling properties and quality of ancient hydrocarbon-bearing carbonates. While previous investigations of coastal sabkhas in Qatar have mainly focused on dolomitization processes, presented here is one...

Geoarchaeological Research on Roman fish-sauce production sites in Lusitania: Boca do Rio and Tróia

The early to middle Holocene Humid Period led to a greening of today’s arid Saharo-Arabian desert belt. While this phase is well defined in North Africa and the Southern Arabian Peninsula, robust evidence from Northern Arabia is lacking. Here we fill this gap with unprecedented annually to sub-decadally resolved proxy data from Tayma, the only know...

In light of global warming and rising relative sea level (RSL), detailed reconstructions of RSL histories and their controlling processes are essential in order to manage coastal‐protection challenges. This study contributes to unravelling Holocene RSL change on the East Frisian North Sea coast in high resolution and with a new approach for the Ger...

Die geoarchäologische Forschung ist in starkem Maße vom jeweiligen Naturraum und seiner geomorphologischen und klimageographischen Ausstattung abhängig. Das Kapitel betrachtet zunächst fluviale Systeme in humiden und ariden Räumen, das heißt Flusslandschaften im Hinblick auf ihre Bedeutung für die menschliche Besiedelungsgeschichte und ihre Erforsc...

Hyperarid coasts develop under relatively high air humidity and abundant sea salt aerosols, resulting in physical and chemical weathering processes that distinctly differ from those present in inland deserts. However, neither the geomorphic effects of the weathering processes nor the timescales on which they alter depositional surfaces are sufficie...

We combined biostratigraphical analyses, archaeological surveys, and Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) models to provide new insights into the relative sea-level evolution in the northeastern Aegean Sea (eastern Mediterranean). In this area, characterized by a very complex tectonic pattern, we produced a new typology of sea-level index point, base...

Here, we investigate the application of rock surface IRSL dating to chronology restrain archaeological structures related to upland pastoralism. We applied the method to cobbles collected from archaeological units in an excavation of a dry-stone structure in Val di Sole in the Italian Alps. At this site, archaeological finds and previous radiocarbo...

Wave-transported boulders represent important records of storm and tsunami impact over geological timescales. Their use for hazard assessment requires chronological information on their displacement that in many cases cannot be achieved by established dating approaches. To fill this gap, this study investigated, for the first time, the potential of...

Presentation

The Santo André lagoon is located on the southern west coast of Portugal, about 80 km south of Lisbon. Although the beach barrier separating the lagoon from the open sea was occasionally breached in the past and has artificially been opened on an annual basis for the last decades, the lagoon still represents an appropriate geo-bio-archive for recon...

In southern Iberia, the surroundings of the Strait of Gibraltar are known as a crossroad for population movements, cultural exchanges, and trade from Late Prehistory to modern times. However, questions remain about the impact of this historical development on the environment. The settlement of La Silla del Papa, an important hillfort in southern An...

Mesopotamia, known as the cradle of civilisation, gave rise to the first complex, urban-type societies with sophisticated political hierarchies. Its rich history full of important cultural achievements was accompanied by fundamental environmental changes over the Holocene. While geo-bio-archives from the broader region reflect slightly varying clim...

Loess-paleosol sequences (LPSs) are important terrestrial archives of paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic information. One of the main obstacles for the investigation and interpretation of these archives is the uncertainty of their age-depth relationship. In this study, four different dating techniques were applied to the Late Pleistocene to Holoc...

This article summarizes the results of a project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) under the umbrella of the SPP 1630 from 2012 to 2018. During the field campaigns archaeological, architectural, geoarchaeological and geophysical investigations were carried out. The research focus was on the topographical and economic development of Ain...

Lacustrine sediments are important archives for high resolution palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of the Holocene. Despite the density of ancient cities and settlements along the western coast of Turkey, the archives from coastal lakes in this area have until now not been recognized to their fullest potential and are, therefore, only poorly studi...

The spatial distribution of boulder deposits along rocky coastlines provides important implications for estimating the hazard of extreme waves (storms or tsunamis). However, rocky coasts are highly dynamic environments, and their changes through time have to be considered when analyzing the coarse-clast record and inferring characteristics of past...

Wave-transported boulders represent important records of storm and tsunami impact over geological timescales. Their use for hazard assessment requires chronological information that in many cases cannot be achieved by established dating approaches. To fill this gap, this study investigated, for the first time, the potential of optically stimulated...

We apply seismic full waveform inversion (FWI) to SH and Love wave data for investigating the near‐surface lithology of an archaeological site. We evaluate the resolution of the applied FWI algorithm through ground truthing in form of an excavation and sediment cores. Thereby, we investigate the benefits of FWI in comparison to other established me...

Coastal alluvial fans (CAF) are important geo-archives due to their sensitivity to both tectonic activity and climatic changes and they may give key insights for geomorphic and sedimentary processes. In this study we test the potential of K-feldspar post infrared-infrared stimulated luminescence (pIR-IRSL) and quartz electron spin resonance (ESR) m...

Coastal boulder fields provide clues to long‐term frequency‐magnitude patterns of coastal flooding events and have the potential to play an important role in coastal hazard assessment. Mapping boulders in the field is time and labour‐intensive, and work on intertidal reef platforms, as in the present study, is physically challenging. By addressing...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

In the hyperarid environment of the Atacama Desert, alluvial fans are the principle fluvial geo-archive reflecting variations in climate and tectonics in their architecture. While they have been studied in the core of the desert to reconstruct long-term palaeoenvironmental changes from the Oligocene to the Quaternary and, in particular, to constrai...

Previous studies have shown that climate events have the potential to significantly impact hunter-gatherer land use patterns in the Western Mediterranean. Especially Heinrich Event 1 (18-15.6 ka calBP) affected the long-term stability of Magdalenian groups on the South of the Iberian Peninsula, while it did not impact the contemporaneous Iberomauru...

Geoarchives in ancient settlement sites and their environs bear valuable information about Holocene landscape evolution and human–environment interactions. During the last six millennia, sea‐level and coastline changes have had a significant impact on coastal settlements, some of which even had to be relocated. This paper reveals new insights into...

Systematic archaeological exploration of southern Qatar started in the 1950s. However, detailed local and regional data on climatic fluctuations and landscape changes during the Holocene, pivotal for understanding and reconstructing human–environment interactions, are still lacking. This contribution provides an overview on the variability of geomo...

This article sheds new light on the narrative of Noah’s Flood (Genesis Flood, Great Deluge) from a geoscientific point of view. It outlines the four most popular hypotheses: (i) the postglacial–early Holocene flooding of the Persian/Arabian Gulf which fell dry during the last glacial lowstand of the sea; (ii) a cosmic impact by a meteorite ca. 10,0...

Резюме: Опираясь на результаты геолого-археологической реконструкции древнего архипелага и рукавов Керченского пролива до времени расширения дельты Кубани, данная статья выдвигает ряд аргументов в пользу идентификации топонима Coracanda с «Кубанским Боспором», топонима Корокондама с пос. Волна 1 и южной частью «острова Тамань», а топонима Короконда...

Before the closing of its lagoons and the progradation of the Hebros delta, Ainos took advantage of an almost insulate position, which made it one of the main hubs between the Greek Aegean and the Thracian hinterland. Annual Turkish archaeological excavations (since 1973) and international geoarchaeological research (since 2011-2012) have revealed...

We present the first experimental evaluation of the alpha efficiency value for electron spin resonance (ESR) dating of coarse quartz grains, which is used for the evaluation of the internal and external alpha dose rate components. Based on our results, we recommend the use of an a-value of 0.07 ± 0.01 (1σ) for both the Al and Ti centres. Although w...

The focus in 2018 should be laid in investigations on the urbanistic development of Limyra mainly during the Hellenistic period. Excavation and research work could be carried out in the frame of the scientific project “The Urbanistic Development of Limyra in the Hellenistic Period”. This project deals with general questions such as the spatial expa...

We present two examples of seismic full waveform inversion (FWI) on small scale archaeological canal structures and compare the results with coring and excavation data to evaluate the benefits coming from FWI concerning resolution and material contrast. In the first example, the applicability of a combined low- and bandpass filter FWI strategy for...

Due to their sensitivity to both tectonic activity and climatic variations, coastal alluvial fans (CAF) along the western flank of the Coastal Cordillera in the Atacama Desert (northern Chile) are important geo-archives for unravelling Quaternary environmental change. Our study focuses on terrestrial and marine deposits of five CAF complexes betwee...

Geological records indicate that the hyper-aridity in the Atacama Desert has prevailed since at least the Mid-Miocene. The 7-metre accumulation of colluvial sediments at the Salar Grande (21°S/70°W) studied here provides a fundamental palaeoclimate record to understand hillslope dynamics and its relation to humid periods. While 10Be surface exposur...

In light of rising sea levels and increased storm surge hazards, detailed information on relative sea-level (RSL) histories and local controlling mechanisms is required to support future projections and to better prepare for future coastal-protection challenges. This study contributes to deciphering Holocene RSL changes at the German North Sea coas...

In the southernmost part of the Colchian plain (Georgia), the Supsa and Rioni rivers represent important catchments for reconstructing Holocene landscape changes. Using granulometric methods, geochemical analyses and radiocarbon dating, we demonstrate that significant palaeoenvironmental changes have taken place in the surroundings of the Supsa fan...

The evolution of alluvial fans on the narrow coastal plain of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile is so far poorly investigated. Therefore, a detailed geomorphological map at a scale of 1:7500 of a coastal alluvial fan complex at Guanillos (21°58′S, 70°10.5′W) is provided as a first step to understand the fan’s morphogenesis. Geomorphological mapp...

For this study, a 15-m sediment core from the Roman harbor of Ephesus has been dated with the luminescence technique. ¹⁴C age estimates from the same and a neighboring core were used for comparing and validating the luminescence dating results via a single aliquot regenerative dose (SAR) protocol: infrared stimulation of polymineral and blue stimul...

During the last decades, luminescence dating has entered a phase of diversification. This evolution is strongly linked to a series of technical advances, including but not limited to the improvement of EMCCD cameras and the use of violet and yellow LEDs. New measurement techniques have been developed, such as post infra-red infra-red stimulated lum...

Along the coast of the hyperarid Atacama Desert, late Quaternary alluvial fans emerge from the Coastal Cordillera to the Pacific Ocean between 20.5°S and 25.5°S. Coastal alluvial fans (CAF) show, in comparison to the interior fans of the Atacama Desert, pronounced recent activity. However, the complex interplay between climate, lithology, and tecto...

During the past seven millennia, huge environmental changes have occurred in the environs of the (later) city of Ephesos (W Turkey) due to the delta progradation of the Küçük Menderes and its tributaries within an extended former marine embayment. In addition, an ever increasing human influence on the landscape (settlements, agriculture, herding) h...

Abstract In 1755 CE, a strong earthquake followed by a transatlantic tsunami destroyed large coastal areas; it also left its sedimentary imprints in the Boca do Rio valley (western Algarve, Portugal). This tsunami layer is very well preserved and has been analysed in several studies. Deposits of preceding extreme wave events, however, have rarely b...

Loess-palaeosol sequences (LPSs) are widespread archives of Pleistocene environmental changes in Eurasia. In Europe, LPPs can be found from the oceanic regions of France in the NW via the Pannonian Basin to the continental plains to the north and east of the Black and Caspian seas. Their chronologies are determined by various direct and indirect da...

The original version of this article, unfortunately, contained error. Corresponding author name appeared in the article is “Prakrit Nopprakrit” instead of “Prakrit Noppradit”. Given in this article is the correct author name. The original article has been corrected.

The applicability of a post‐infrared infrared stimulated luminescence (pIRIR290) protocol and two different thermoluminescence (TL) protocols—a single aliquot regeneration (SAR) and a multiple aliquot additive dose (MAAD)—was tested on six polymineral fine‐grain (4–11 μm) samples extracted from the wall remains of a Roman lime kiln and a Roman roof...

Throughout human history, communication and trade have been key to society. Because maritime trade facilitated the rapid transportation of passengers and freight at relatively low cost, harbours became hubs for traffic, trade and exchange. This general statement holds true for the Pergamenian kingdom, which ruled wide parts of today's western Turke...

The catastrophic storm surge of tropical cyclone Nargis in May 2008 demonstrated Myanmar's exposure to coastal flooding. The investigation of sediments left by tropical cyclone Nargis and its predecessors is an important contribution to prepare for the impact of future tropical cyclones and tsunamis in the region, because they may extend the databa...

The lower Moulouya River (NE Morocco) drains a tectonically active area related to the NW-SE convergence of the African and Eurasian plates. Fluvial deposits preserved in the lower Moulouya have been dated to ∼1.5–1.1 Ma as part of a recent multi-technique geochronology study. The present work aims to verify and refine the existing Early Pleistocen...

The spatial variability of relative sea-level (RSL) changes in the German Bight over the Holocene is not entirely resolved, hidden behind a plethora of different global to local driving factors, as well as vertical uncertainty associated with peat layers (indicative meaning, post-depositional compaction, no continuous data etc.), the most commonly...

Postglacial sea-level rise led to the development of extended marine gulfs in the grabens of the western margin of the Anatolian Plate. During the last seven millennia, these marine indentations have silted up due to the continued progradation of the deltas of major rivers. Good examples of this geomorphological metamorphosis from ria coasts to del...

Through a two-part approach, new light is shed on the evolution and history of Lake Bafa (modern Bafa Gölü in western Turkey) and its environs, the former regions of northwestern Karia and southern Ionia. This article both outlines the charter myths that the immigrant Greeks and indigenous Karians created to sanction their land ownership, and inves...

The narrow coastal plain between 20.5°S and 25.5°S in Northern Chile is characterized by Late Quaternary alluvial fans emerging from the prominent Coastal Cordillera to the Pacific Ocean. Especially towards the south, coastal alluvial fans (CAF) become the dominant geomorphological feature. They are much younger than the interior alluvial fans of t...

Due to their sensitivity to both tectonic activity and climatic variations, coastal alluvial fans (CAF) along the western flank of the Coastal Cordillera in the Atacama Desert (northern Chile) are important geo-archives for unravelling Quaternary environmental change. Nevertheless, only limited chronological information is available for these depos...

The Eastern Visayas region in the Philippines is significantly exposed to high-energy marine inundation events. It gets regularly hit by some of the strongest tropical cyclones on Earth, recently by Typhoon Haiyan (2013) or Typhoon Hagupit (2014), causing extreme waves at the coastline. The region is also closely located to the Philippine Trench an...

To date, geological evidence of palaeoenvironmental change in northwestern Saudi Arabia is scarce. At Taymāʾ, the stratigraphy of a sabkha (salt flat) provides evidence for Holocene climatic and landscape change. Preliminary interpretation of multi-proxy nalysis and palaeontological findings indicates that a large perennial lake existed in the sabk...