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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.
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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

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