Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T14:34:15.962Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Loch Lomond Advance in the Lake District, northern England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

J. B. Sissons
J. B. Sissons
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh, High School Yards, Edinburgh EH1 1NR, Scotland.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The extent of 64 glaciers that existed in the Lake District during the Loch Lomond Stadial is inferred from end, hummocky and fluted moraines and illustrated by detailed maps. Glacier surfaces are contoured and the equilibrium firn lines of the glaciers are calculated. Firn line altitudes were strongly influenced by snowfall, glacier aspect and the transfer of snow by wind from adjacent high ground. Snowfall was associated mainly with south to southeast winds and the mean direction of winds responsible for snow transfer was probably slightly west of south. It is inferred that mean July temperature at sea-level was slightly below 8°C. Protalus ramparts and other snowbed deposits indicate the former presence of numerous perennial snow beds down to altitudes of 200-300 m although the widespread occurrence of fossil gelifluction sheets and lobes points to large snow-free areas above these altitudes in summer. Fossil valley-wall rock glaciers indicate a mean annual temperature at sea-level no higher than 1°C. During deglaciation the great majority of the small glaciers retreated actively for 100-150 m and then probably decayed in situ, but some, at least, of the larger glaciers were active during much of the time their margins retreated.

Keywords

firn lineperiglacial featurepalaeoclimatic inferencemoraine
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 71 , Issue 1 , 1980 , pp. 13 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blagborough, J. W. & Karkas, S. E. 1968. Rock glaciers in the San Mateo Mountains, south-central New Mexico. AM J SCI 266, 812–23.Google Scholar
Coope, G. R., Morgan, A. & Osborne, P. J. 1971. Fossil coleoptera as indicators of climatic fluctuations during the last glaciation in Britain. PALAEOGEOGR PALAEOCLIMATOL PALAEOECOL 10, 87–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerschner, H. 1978. Paleoclimatic inferences from Late Würm rock glaciers, eastern Alps, western Tyrol, Austria. ARCT ALP RES 10, 635–14.Google Scholar
Liestøl, O. 1961. Talus terraces in Arctic regions. NOR POLARINST ARBOK 102–5.Google Scholar
Manley, G. 1959. The late-glacial climate of North-West England. LIVERPOOL MANCHESTER GEOL J 2, 188–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marr, J. W. 1916. The geology of the Lake District. Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Outcalt, S. I. & Benedict, J. B. 1965. Photo-interpretation of two types of rock glacier in the Colorado Front Range, U.S.A. J GLACIOL 5, 849–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pennington, W. 1978. Quaternary geology. In Moseley, F. (ed.) Geology of the Lake District. OCCAS PAP YORKSHIRE GEOL SOC No. 3, 207–25.Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W. F., Sancetta, C. D. & McIntyre, A. 1977. Glacial/interglacial response rate of subpolar North Atlantic water to climatic change: the record in ocean sediments. PHILOS TRANS R SOC LONDON 280B, 119–42.Google Scholar
Sissons, J. B. 1974. A late-glacial ice cap in the central Grampians, Scotland. TRANS INST BR GEOGR 62, 95–114.Google Scholar
Sissons, J. B. 1977. The Loch Lomond Readvance in the northern mainland of Scotland. In Gray, J. M. & Lowe, J. J. (eds) Studies in the Scottish Lateglacial environment, 45–59. Oxford: Pergamon.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sissons, J. B. & Sutherland, D. G. 1976. Climatic inferences from former glaciers in the South-East Grampian Highlands, Scotland. J GLACIOL 17, 325–46.Google Scholar
Walker, D. 1955. Studies in the post-glacial history of British vegetation. XIV Skelsmergh Tarn and Kentmere, Westmorland. NEW PHYTOL 54, 222–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, D. 1965. The post-glacial period in the Langdale fells, English Lake District. NEW PHYTOL 64, 488–510.Google Scholar
Ward, C. 1873. The glaciation of the northern part of the Lake District. Q J GEOL SOC LONDON 29, 422–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ward, C. 1875. The glaciation of the southern part of the Lake District. Q J GEOL SOC LONDON 31, 152–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar