Coastal landforms and the Holocene evolution of the Island of Samsø, Denmark

Abstract

The geomorphology of a coastal landscape may reveal an indication of past shoreline configurations. The spatial arrangement of the preserved morphologies may further contain indications on the importance of the different key parameters influencing shoreline evolution over millennial timescales, such as palaeo sea-level position, longshore currents, energy gradients, and sediment supply. This paper presents the results and observations of a surveying and mapping study conducted for the island of Samsø at a scale of 1:75,000. The objective of the work is to support the interpretation of core sample data and to extract information on the factors determining the morpho-sedimentary development of moraine-embedded coastal lagoon systems during the Holocene. The map is based on an airborne LiDAR-derived high-resolution digital terrain model that is combined with spatial information on bathymetry, surface geology and other features from archived geodata and maps.