22 / 08 / 2016
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Illustration: adapted from Maikel De Clercq et al., 2015
The Nemo Link® interconnector will consist of subsea and underground cables connecting Zeebrugge with Richborough (UK). From 2019 onwards, these cables will serve for the exchange of electricity between the two countries. During the preparation phase of the project in 2010, a series of geophysical and geological data were collected along the trajectory of the interconnector. The substrate was examined by seismic techniques and by taking sediment cores, sampled with a vibrocorer.
Elia, the Belgian partner in the Nemo Link ® Interconnector Project, addressed oneself to the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) with the offer that the samples and data were free to be used for scientific research. After a short survey within the marine science community in Flanders and Belgium, the Renard Centre of Marine Geology (RCMG) of Ghent University was strongly interested in the vibrocore samples taken in front of the coast of Ostend, Belgium. This zone is known to marine geologists for its small river valleys which are in line with the Ostend Valley, the former Scheldt estuary (about 100,000 years ago).
The data can serve to reconstruct the geological history and the composition of this part of the Belgian part of the North Sea. In order to figure out the exact age of these valleys, the scientists selected a.o. one specific vibrocorer (VC-0035) because of its unique location. Through a collaboration between Ghent University and TNO about 10 samples were taken of the soil core for pollen analysis and two samples for a radiocarbon dating of wood fragments. Knowledge of the age of these valleys can provide information about the landscape development during the last ice age and about how the landscape looked for the presence of our ancestors.
The selected Nemo Link® Interconnector sediment cores are kept in the core repository of the Marine Station Ostend of VLIZ.