Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T20:22:53.243Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Late Holocene debris cone evolution in Glen Feshie, western Cairngorm Mountains, Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

Vanessa Brazier  and
Colin K. Ballantyne
Vanessa Brazier
Affiliation:
Vanessa Brazier, Department of Geography, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Colin K. Ballantyne
Affiliation:
Colin K. Ballantyne, Department of Geography and Geology, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9AL, Scotland, U.K.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent river erosion of three coalescing debris cones in Glen Feshie has exposed a complex sequence of debris flow units. Radiocarbon dating of organic matter from interbedded buried soils reveals that the soil at the base of the sequence was buried at c. 2000 yr BP, but that the bulk of the cones accumulated since the fifteenth century AD. The episodic nature of cone development is attributable to lateral migration of the River Feshie, with periods of cone accumulation when the river occupied the far side of its floodplain alternating with periods of erosion when the river impinged on the cones. There is no evidence to suggest that recent cone accumulation is related to anthropogenic vegetation disturbance, but phases of cone accumulation show a broad temporal correspondence with periods of Late Holocene climatic deterioration. The cones are essentially paraglacial in that their continuing accumulation depends on a supply of sediment derived from glacial and periglacial deposits upslope. The form of debris-flow units indicates that flows at this site were less viscous than most ‘hillslope’ flows, and cone volumes indicate an average annual accumulation of c. 50–60 m3 of sediment over the past c. 300years.

Keywords

Climatic deteriorationdebris flowsdenudation ratesparaglacialradiocarbon dating.
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 80 , Issue 1 , 1989 , pp. 17 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1989

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

Baird, P. D. & Lewis, W. V. 1957. The Cairngorm floods, 1956: summer solifluction and distributary formation. SCOTT GEOGR MAG 73, 91–100.Google Scholar
Ballantyne, C. K. 1986. Late Flandrian solifluction on the Fannich Mountains, Ross-shire. SCOTT J GEOL 22, 395–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ballantyne, C. K. & Eckford, J. D. 1984. Characteristics and evolution of two relict talus slopes in Scotland. SCOTT GEOGR MAG 100, 20–33.Google Scholar
Ballantyne, C. K. & Whittington, G. 1987. Niveo-aeolian sand deposits on An Teallach, Wester Ross, Scotland. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH EARTH SCI 78, 51–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrow, G., Hinxman, L. W. & Cunningham Craig, E. H. 1913. The geology of upper Strath Spey, Gaick and the Forest of Atholl. MEM GEOL SURV SCOTLAND.Google Scholar
Brazier, V. 1987. Late Quaternary alluvial fans, debris cones and talus cones in the Grampian Highlands, Scotland. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of St Andrews.Google Scholar
Brazier, V., Whittington, G. & Ballantyne, C. K. 1988. Holocene debris cone evolution in Glen Etive, Western Grampian Highlands, Scotland. EARTH SURF PROCESSES LANDFORMS 13, 525–531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carling, P. A. 1987. A terminal debris flow lobe in the northern Pennines, United Kingdom. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH EARTH SCI 78, 169–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Common, R. 1954. A report on the Lochaber, Appin and Benderloch floods, May, 1953. SCOTT GEOGR MAG 70, 6–20.Google Scholar
Ferguson, R. I. & Werritty, A. 1983. Bar development and channel changes in the gravelly River Feshie, Scotland. SPEC PUBL INT ASSOC SEDIMENTOL 6, 181–93.Google Scholar
Goh, K. M., Stout, J. D. & Rafter, T. A. 1977. Radiocarbon enrichment of soil organic matter fractions in New Zealand soils. SOIL SCI 123, 385–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, A. M. 1986. Geomorphic effects of a 100 year storm in the Howgill Fells, northwest England. Z GEOMORPH 30, 71–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, A. M. 1987. Seasonality of processes on eroding gullies: a twelve year record of erosion rates. In Godard, A. & Rapp, A. (eds) Processus et Mesure de l'érosion, 439–54. Paris: C.N.R.S.Google Scholar
Harvey, A. M., Oldfield, F., Baron, A. F. & Pearson, G. W. 1981. Dating of postglacial landforms in the central Howgills. EARTH SURF PROCESSES LANDFORMS 6, 401–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Innes, J. L. 1983a. Lichenometric dating of debris flow deposits in the Scottish Highlands. EARTH SURF PROCESSES LANDFORMS 8, 579–588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Innes, J. L. 1983b. Debris Flows. PROG PHYS GEOGR 7, 469–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Innes, J. L. 1985. Magnitude-frequency relations of debris flows in northwest Europe. GEOGR ANNLR 67A, 23–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, A., Ashworth, P. J., Ferguson, R. I., Greive, I. C., Rowling, P. & Stott, T. A. 1988. Slope failures on the Ochil Hills, Scotland, November 1984. EARTH SURF PROCESSES LANDFORMS 13, 69–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkinson, D. S. & Rayner, J. H. 1977. The turnover of soil organic matter in some of the Rothamsted classical experiments. SOIL SCI 123, 298–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kotarba, A. 1984. Slope features in areas of high relief in maritime climates (with the Isle of Rhum as example). STUD GEOMORPH CARPATHO BALCANICA 17, 77–88.Google Scholar
Lamb, H. H. 1977. The Late Quarternary History of the climate of the British Isles. In Shotton, F. W. (ed.) British Quaternary studies: recent advances, 284–98. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Lauder, T. D. 1830. An account of the great floods of August, 1829, in the province of Moray and adjoining districts. Elgin: McGillivary and Sons.Google Scholar
Linton, D. L. 1951. Watershed breaching by ice in Scotland. TRANS INST BR GEOGR 15, 1–15.Google Scholar
Matthews, J. A. & Dresser, P. Q. 1983. Intensive 14C dating of a buried palaeosol horizon. GEOL FÖREN STOCKHOLM FÖRHANDL 105, 59–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McEwen, L. J. 1986. River channel planform changes in upland Scotland, with specific reference to climatic fluctuations and land-use changes over the last 250 years. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of St Andrews.Google Scholar
Meteorological Office, 1977. Average annual rainfall: northern Britain. 1:625,000 map, Ordnance Survey.Google Scholar
Robertson-Rintoul, M. S. E. 1986a. A quantitative soilstratigraphic approach to the correlation and dating of postglacial river terraces in Glen Feshie, south-west Cairngorms. EARTH SURF PROCESSES LANDFORMS 11, 605–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson-Rintoul, M. S. E. 1986b. River planform, soil stratigraphy and the temporal and palaeoenvironmental significance of terraced valley fill deposits in Upland Scotland, with specific reference to Glen Feshie, south-west Cairngorms. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Hull.Google Scholar
Ryder, J. 1971. The stratigraphy and morphology of paraglacial alluvial fans in south-central British Columbia. CAN J EARTH SCI 8, 279–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sissons, J. B. 1974. A late-glacial ice cap in the Central Grampians, Scotland. TRANS INST BR GEOGR 62, 95–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sissons, J. B. 1979. The Loch Lomond Advance in the Cairngorm Mountains. SCOTT GEOGR MAG 95, 66–82.Google Scholar
Statham, I. 1976. Debris flows on vegetated screes in the Black Mountain, Carmarthenshire. EARTH SURF PROCESSES 1, 173–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M. & Reimer, P. J. 1986. A computer programme for radiocarbon age calibration. RADIOCARBON 28, 1022–1030.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, S. G. & Harvey, A. M. 1987. Sedimentologic and geomorphic variations in storm-generated alluvial fans, Howgill Fells, north-west England. BULL GEOL SOC AM 98, 182–98.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werritty, A. & Ferguson, R. I. 1980. Pattern changes in a Scottish braided river over 1, 30, and 200 years. In Cullingford, R. A., Davidson, D. A. & Lewin, J. (eds) Timescales in Geomorphology, 53–68. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Young, J. A. T. 1976. The terraces of Glen Feshie, Inverness-shire. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH 69, 501–12.Google Scholar