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1.
Many relict rock glaciers and protalus lobes have been described in mountainous areas of the British Isles. This paper reviews their distribution, chronology, supposed origin and development, and places the research within current investigations and knowledge. Rock glaciers and protalus lobes are located in a number of different topographic locations and settings. They developed at the base of steep cliffs following the catastrophic failure of rock faces, at the base of scree slopes following the gradual accumulation of rock debris and in association with glaciers. Protalus lobes probably developed in response to the permafrost creep of talus material while rock glaciers formed through the deformation and sliding of large bodies of buried ice. Rock glaciers probably developed, or were last active, during the Younger Dryas, although the possibility exists that some of these landforms are Dimlington Stadial in age. The development of protalus lobes during the Younger Dryas suggests that precipitation levels were low and permafrost was widespread during this time. The lack of rock glaciers (sensu stricto) in the British Isles compared with other mountain areas is believed to be a consequence of the rock type and relative scarcity of weathered debris for their formation rather than a lack of suitable sites or appropriate environmental conditions. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

2.
The glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) of the British Isles is complex due to the interplay between local and non‐local signals. A number of recent studies have modelled the GIA response of the British Isles using relative sea‐level data. This study extends these previous analyses by using output from a numerical glaciological model as input to a GIA model. This is a necessary step towards more realistic GIA models, and although there have been similar studies for the major late Pleistocene ice sheets, this is the first study to do so for the British Isles. We test three reconstructions, classed as ‘minimal’, ‘median’ and ‘maximal’ in terms of their volume at maximum extent, and find it is possible to obtain good data–model fits. The minimal reconstruction is clearly preferred by the sea‐level data. The ice reconstructions tested were not constrained by geomorphological information of past ice extent (lateral and vertical). As a consequence, the reconstructions extend further than much of this information suggests, particularly in terms of ice thickness. It is notable, however, that the reconstructions produce good fits to many sea‐level data from central, mountainous regions (e.g. Scottish highlands), which lends support to the suggestion that trimlines, often used as an constraint on the palaeo ice surface location, are in fact features formed at the transition from warm‐ to cold‐based ice and so mark a minimum constraint on the ice surface altitude. Based on data–model misfits, suggestions are made for improving the ice model reconstructions. However, in many locations, the cause of the misfit could be due to non‐local, predominantly Fennoscandian ice and so interpretation is not straightforward. As a result, we suggest that future analyses of this type consider models and observations for both Fennoscandia and the British Isles. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

3.
Applying the principles of structural geology and sedimentology to glacial depositional features indicates that the High-Arctic provides the best analogues for late glacial landforms in the British uplands.  相似文献   

4.
In August 1994, Britain's top science journal, Nature, announced that a team of scientists working at the University of Cambridge had found Europe's oldest rocks at a remote location near to Gruinard Bay in the Scottish Highlands. They reported ancient volcanic rocks with an age of 3300 million years. This was more than 300 million years older than any age previously measured on rocks in the British Isles and between 100 and 200 million years older than any rocks known in Europe. The discovery of itself is in many ways unremarkable, for much older rocks are known from ancient continental shield areas in Canada, Australia and Greenland. What was important was that the reported age did not agree with any of the other measured ages known within the British Isles. This was highlighted in a comment in the same issue of Nature, which suggested that the new data were so important that they require a massive revision of our views on the earliest history of the British Isles. For other scientists, however, the conflict between these new data and previously reported ages began to raise questions about the methods employed in dating the 'oldest rocks'.  相似文献   

5.
The British Isles have been the focus of a number of recent modelling studies owing to the existence of a high‐quality sea‐level dataset for this region and the suitability of these data for constraining shallow earth viscosity structure, local to regional ice sheet histories and the magnitude/timing of global meltwater signals. Until recently, the paucity of both glaciological and relative sea‐level (RSL) data from Ireland has meant that the majority of these glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) modelling studies of the British Isles region have tended to concentrate on reconstructing ice cover over Britain. However, the recent development of a sea‐level database for Ireland along with emergence of new glaciological data on the spatial extent, thickness and deglacial chronology of the Irish Ice Sheet means it is now possible to revisit this region of the British Isles. Here, we employ these new data to constrain the evolution of the Irish Ice Sheet. We find that in order to reconcile differences between model predictions and RSL evidence, a thick, spatially extensive ice sheet of ～600–700 m over much of north and central Ireland is required at the LGM with very rapid deglaciation after 21 k cal. yr BP. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

6.
The Cerro El Potro and nearby mountain chains belong to the Andean Frontal Cordillera (28°S). Cerro El Potro is a glaciated mountain that is surrounded by huge valleys both on its Chilean and Argentinean flanks. Its southern limit is a steep rock wall towards the trough-shaped Río Blanco valley in Argentina, with a wide valley floor. The other sides of the mountain are characterized by well-developed Pleistocene cirques. The predominant landforms in this area have been shaped in a periglacial environment superimposed on an earlier glacial landscape. It is a region with abundant rock glaciers, a noteworthy rock glacier zone, but nevertheless, it is a relatively little known area in South America. In this preliminary inventory, the landforms surveyed were mainly gravitational in origin, including valley rock glaciers, talus rock glaciers, debris cones, landforms originated by solifluction processes and talus detrital sheets on mountain sides. Ancient moraine deposits have been found on the sides of the main rivers that cross the area form west to east, including the Blanco and Bermejo rivers. Present day fluvial activity is limited, and restricted to these main rivers. In this area of glacial valleys and small cirques, there are small lakes and other water bodies, grass covered patches and zones with high mountain vegetation. Present day glacial activity is restricted to the highest part of the area, above 5500 m a.s.l., mainly in the Cerro El Potro (5879 m) where a permanent ice field exists, as well as small mountain glaciers.  相似文献   

7.
When viewed from the air, Scottish ‘hummocky moraine’ can be resolved into a series of linear ridges that resemble those found at the margins of actively retreating glaciers today. Recent work has supported the interpretation of these linear ridges as ice-marginal landforms and the authors believe that the majority of ‘hummocky moraine’ deposits can be interpreted in this way. Consequently the pattern of deglaciation can be established fairly precisely from the pattern of linear ridges. This approach is applied to the landforms of the northern part of the Loch Lomond Stadial ice-field in order to reconstruct the regional pattern of deglaciation. This leads to important inferences about the significance of topographic control during deglaciation and more importantly it provides fresh insight into the environment of the British Isles during the Loch Lomond Stadial.  相似文献   

8.
龙门山古冰川作用   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  
汶川地震中央区域龙门山主山九顶山海拔4 984 m,山脊北坡有三处成排分布不少规模较小的冰斗-冰川谷地形,恢复当时雪线高度在4 100 m高度。根据其形态保存程度、古今雪线高度差等情况判断,应当是2阶段冰川作用遗存。据气温和降水资料,现在九顶山雪线高度在5 000 m,刚好超出九顶山顶部。故而九顶山3 800 m以上目前处于冰缘环境,石冰川、石环、融冻泥流等冰缘现象比较突出。九顶山不存在更老的冰川作用及其地貌遗存,是青藏高原以东5 000 m上下的高山只是在末次冰期时抬升跨越冰期雪线而发育冰川这一新观点的又一证据,也是青藏高原第四纪晚期剧烈抬升的又一证据。  相似文献   

9.
A wide variety of Late Devensian periglacial landforms developed on Scottish mountains both before ca. 13,000 BP and during the Loch Lomond Stadial of ca. 11,000-10,000 BP. Nearly all such features are now inactive. Late Devensian periglacial weathering produced three types of regolith mantle (openwork block deposits, sandy diamicts and silt-rich frost-susceptible diamicts), each of which supports a characteristic assemblage of relict landforms. On upper slopes these include large-scale sorted circles and stripes, earth hummocks and nonsorted relief stripes, sorted and nonsorted solifluction features, massive boulder sheets and lobes, and nivation benches. Talus, protalus ramparts, rock glaciers and alluvial fans also developed at the base of mountain slopes.The distribution of Late Devensian periglacial features on Scottish mountains is locally controlled by topography, the response of underlying rocks to periglacial weathering and the limits of former glaciers. Regional variations in the altitude of certain forms of Loch Lomond Stadial age (particularly protalus ramparts and rock glaciers) indicate a decrease in former snowfall eastwards across the Scottish Highlands and northwards from the Highland Boundary Fault. Several upland periglacial features are also diagnostic of former permafrost, and complement palaeotemperature reconstructions based on ice-wedge casts and the equilibrium firn line altitudes of stadial glaciers. These suggest that under stadial conditions mean January temperatures at 600 m and 1000 m on mountains in the Western Grampians must have been no higher than −20°C and −23°C respectively, and possibly several degrees lower.  相似文献   

10.
One of the distinguished efforts of A.L. Washburn was to reconstruct mean annual air temperature using periglacial features as climate indicators. This paper reviews existing periglacial indicators and proposes a strategy to improve their thermal resolution based on recent periglacial process studies, with a focus on solifluction and thermal contraction cracking and associated landforms/structures. Landforms resulting from solifluction reflect both the depth subjected to freeze-thaw and the thickness of frost-susceptible soils. The thickness of a solifluction structure can be used to infer the dominant freeze-thaw regime and minimum seasonal frost depth. Ice-wedge pseudomorphs have limited potential as a climate indicator because (1) they mainly reflect extreme winter temperatures, (2) their thermal thresholds depend on the host material, and (3) they need to be distinguished from frost wedges of other origin produced under different thermal and/or material conditions. Monitoring studies of currently active ice wedges suggest that ice-wedge cracking requires a combination of low temperature and large temperature gradients in the frozen active layer. Further field monitoring of periglacial processes and their controlling factors under various climate conditions and in various materials are needed, however, to improve the resolution of periglacial paleoclimate indicators.  相似文献   

11.
Expansion of the author's previous work has suggested a multiple developmental sequence of non-glacial cirques in south-eastern Lesotho and the adjacent Cape-Natal Drakeniberg of southern Alrica. This sequence consists of a dry type with predominantly frost-shattering as its main process and a wet type where solifluction is thought to form a contributory factor in cirque development. Comparative studies are made with other similar landforms where and the palaeoclimatic implications of the succession are discussed.  相似文献   

12.
While contributing <1 m equivalent eustatic sea‐level rise the British Isles ice sheet produced glacio‐isostatic rebound in northern Britain of similar magnitude to eustatic sea‐level change, or global meltwater influx, over the last 18 000 years. The resulting spatially variable relative sea‐level changes combine with observations from far‐field locations to produce a rigorous test for quantitative models of glacial isostatic adjustment, local ice‐sheet history and global meltwater influx. After a review of the attributes of relative sea‐level observations significant for constraining large‐scale models of the isostatic adjustment process we summarise long records of relative sea‐level change from the British Isles and far‐field locations. We give an overview of different global theoretical models of the isostatic adjustment process before presenting intercomparisons of observed and predicted relative sea levels at sites in the British Isles and far‐field for a range of Earth and ice model parameters in order to demonstrate model sensitivity and the resolving power available from using evidence from the British Isles. For the first time we show a good degree of fit between relative sea‐level observations and predictions that are based upon global Earth and ice model parameters, independently derived from analysis of far‐field data, with a terrain‐corrected model of the British Isles ice sheet that includes extensive glaciation of the North Sea and western continental shelf, that does not assume isostatic equilibrium at the Last Glacial Maximum and keeps to trimline constraints of ice surface elevation. We do not attempt to identify a unique solution for the model lithosphere thickness parameter or the local‐scale detail of the ice model in order to provide a fit for all sites, but argue that the next stage should be to incorporate an ice‐sheet model that is based on quantitative, glaciological model simulations. We hope that this paper will stimulate this debate and help to integrate research in glacial geomorphology, glaciology, sea‐level change, Earth rheology and quantitative modelling. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

13.
Field examination of four landforms in the Wasdale area of the western Lake District that have previously been classified as relict rock glaciers indicates that such designation is no longer appropriate. Two of the features consist of bedrock with clusters of locally derived boulders; another is largely the product of glacial deposition with some evident fluvial modification; the fourth resembles a series of solifluction lobes, which may also have undergone some fluvial alteration. Use of these features to draw palaeoclimatic inferences concerning permafrost and temperature is no longer tenable.  相似文献   

14.
王璞珺  陈桐  张立斌  高翔  高有峰 《沉积学报》2017,35(5):1063-1077
通过国内外资料调研和1950年以来我国相关实验室的考证,研究我国沉积学相关实验室及其仪器设备的历史和现状,揭示存在问题,提出相关建议。数据主要源于三方面,包括国内外数据库6个,国内外沉积学相关实验室官方网站102个以及国内外搜索引擎5个。对访问和调研结果进行统计分析,研究我国沉积学相关实验室及仪器设备的种类、数量及其地区和年代分布,并与国外相关实验室进行对比分析,探索我国沉积学的发展历程、现状和存在问题,并据此展望我国沉积学的未来发展趋势。结果显示,我国沉积学发展经历了1950—1980年的起步阶段,1980—2010年的快速发展阶段,以及2010年以来的稳步提升阶段。作为研究陆表岩石—水—大气—生物相互作用的过程、结果和机制的专门学科,沉积学与资源、环境、全球变化等人类面临的重大挑战都密切相关。我国的沉积学研究长期以来,一直是化石能源与沉积矿产、海洋过程与资源、区域环境和可持续发展等,事关国计民生的相关基础科学研究的重要组成部分。然而,从分析结果看,作为一个重要的地学基础学科,我国沉积学目前面临着以下问题:1）迄今全国还没有一个专门化的沉积学实验室;2）专门用于沉积学研究的实验仪器和设备很少;3）目前与沉积学相关的实验室分布过于集中,实验室与所研究的对象（自然界典型的沉积过程）相互脱离的现象日趋明显且不断加剧。由此可见,一方面我国的沉积学在国民经济和社会发展中发挥着重要的基础研究作用,另一方面相关支撑条件又相对薄弱且存在理论与实际相脱离的趋势。这些问题无疑将会阻碍我国沉积学未来的健康发展。通过此次“中国沉积学发展战略”调研,进一步摸清了家底、理清了问题、看到了不足,希望在此与同行分享我们的调研成果,同时更希望引起相关专家和管理部门的注意,在条件允许时能够不失时机地解决影响我国沉积学发展的上述瓶颈问题。  相似文献   

15.
Tipping, Richard M. 1987 06 01: The prospects for establishing synchroneity in the early postglacial pollen peak of Juniperus in the British Isles. Boreas , Vol. 16, pp. 155–163. Oslo. ISSN 0300–9483.
Seventy radiocarbon assays on the early postglacial Juniperus pollen peak in the British Isles are collated in order to test the hypothesis that the expansion of Juniperus was synchronous in the British Isles. The necessity of screening this data base is discussed, as are the screening procedures adopted. A number of problems concerned with screening are highlighted, which are related to the paucity of information available from which to assess the reliability of a date. The accepted radiocarbon dates are analysed by computer-generated histograms. No clear pattern of synchroneity is found. The possibility of a diachronous distribution across the British Isles is examined. The methods employed in this study illustrate the problems of using large samples of radiocarbon dates, and exemplify the stringent procedures required in handling such data.  相似文献   

16.
Talus-derived landforms from Rondanc National Park, southern Norway, are described and classified as protalus ramparts, valley-floor and valley-side talus-foot rock glaciers, and a 'push-deformation' moraine. A morphological and developmental continuum of talus and derivative large-scale landforrns is proposed. with simple talus slopes at one end and more complex ridge, lobe and bench forms at the other. The various types of feature probably develop from simple talus slopes via separate developmental routes, rather than as a linear sequence. Lichen size and Schmidt hammer R-values were used to indicate the relative ages of the features. Although all are thought to have originated during the early Holocene, they differ in the presence or extent of recent activity. Hence an age and activity continuum is also suggested, the recency of activity increasing in the direction protalus rampart → rock glacier →'push-deformation' moraine.  相似文献   

17.
Deglaciation chronologies for some sectors of former ice sheets are relatively poorly constrained because of the paucity of features or materials traditionally used to constrain the timing of deglaciation. In areas without good deglaciation varve chronologies and/or without widespread occurrence of material that indicates the start of earliest organic radiocarbon accumulations suitable for radiocarbon dating, typically only general patterns and chronologies of deglaciation have been deduced. However, mid-latitude ice sheets that had warm-based conditions close to their margins often produced distinctive deglaciation landform assemblages, including eskers, deltas, meltwater channels and aligned lineation systems. Because these features were formed or significantly altered during the last glaciation, boulder or bedrock samples from them have the potential to yield reliable deglaciation ages using terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides (TCN) for exposure age dating. Here we present the results of a methodological study designed to examine the consistency of TCN-based deglaciation ages from a range of deglaciation landforms at a site in northern Norway. The strong coherence between exposure ages across several landforms indicates great potential for using TCN techniques on features such as eskers, deltas and meltwater channels to enhance the temporal resolution of ice-sheet deglaciation chronologies over a range of spatial scales.  相似文献   

18.
The adoption of cereal cultivation is a key benchmark in the transition from Mesolithic hunter–gatherer foraging to Neolithic farming economies, but the nature, timing and ecological–cultural context of the earliest cereal use in the British Isles and northwest Europe is still uncertain. We present AMS radiocarbon dating and fine‐resolution pollen evidence from the Isle of Man for cereal growing in the latter stages of a distinct episode of forest disturbance at almost 6000 yr BP (uncalibrated). The coherent ecological structure of this phase at the fine resolution level suggests that it records cereal cultivation well before the Ulmus decline, rather than wild grass pollen grains. This example is one of a cluster of early dates for cereal‐type pollen near the start of the sixth millenium BP, including several around the Irish Sea, which indicate that the introduction of cereal agriculture probably occurred as early in the central British Isles as in the northern European plain. This early cereal phase is followed later by a probable phase of pre‐Ulmus decline pastoral activity. We also report Mesolithic age woodland disturbance around 7000 yr BP (uncalibrated) and the first radiocarbon dates for mid‐Holocene forest history of the Isle of Man. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

19.
Exposures on Wimbledon Hill, SW London, in the Palaeogene London Clay Formation, are described. The 3° slopes are mantled by clayey solifluction (head) deposits, comprising two superimposed sheets, each around 1.2 m thick. The lower sheet exhibits relict sand wedges forming polygons 1.0-1.5 m across, up to 50 mm wide and 1.25 m deep. These have no surface expression. The wedges are sand-filled and modify significantly the hydrogeology and properties of the solifluction mantle. There are no sand wedges in the upper solifluction sheet.The mechanics of emplacement of the lower solifluction sheet are explored and the high initial water content estimated. Subsequent desiccation and consolidation have reduced the thickness of this sheet by at least 35%, thus distorting contained features such as the wedges. An active layer about 0.4 m thick is inferred to have formed in the top of the lower solifluction sheet. No direct dating was undertaken but, by analogy with relevant dated sites in southern Britain and the Netherlands it is inferred that the lower solifluction sheet was emplaced during the first part of the Loch Lomond Stadial and frost-cracked during a subsequent, colder and more arid part. On this basis, following filling of the cracks by sand, emplacement of the upper solifluction sheet would have occurred in the later part of the Loch Lomond Stadial.  相似文献   

20.
The break-up of Pangaea after the Variscan Orogeny included rifting extending southwards from the Barents Sea via the Norwegian–Greenland Rift and into the North Sea, and northwards from the Central Atlantic. These two major rift systems interacted to form an approximately 1200-km-wide transfer zone across the British Isles, where a complex network of basins developed during the Mesozoic. Fault patterns were commonly controlled by reactivation of Precambrian, Caledonian and Variscan structures. The two main rift systems were unable to breach this regional transfer zone, where the crust had been thickened by the Caledonian and Variscan orogenies, until the Eocene. Breaching did not occur down the North Sea and through the English Channel because of Alpine contraction in NW Europe. Instead, breaching occurred around the west of Ireland and NW Scotland, so the British Isles remained connected to Europe rather than to the North American Plate.  相似文献   

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