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The Interglacial Problem and the Glacial and Postglacial Sequence in Northumberland and Durham

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

David Woolacott
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Extract

Since my papers on “The Superficial Deposits and Preglacial Valleys of the Northumberland and Durham Coalfield” 1 and “The Origin and Influence of the chief Physical Features of Northumberland and Durham” 2 were published, a great deal of detailed work has been done on the glacial phenomena in the two north-eastern counties by Smythe,3 Merrick,4 Herdman,5 Trechmann,6 and myself.7 As I have given much attention to this subject it may be of interest and value if I give a brief resume of my views, a general summary of the work done, and attempt to show the general sequence of the phenomena that have been described. My extensive study of the Drift in these two countries and elsewhere has convinced me of its complexity. I cannot, therefore, be dogmatic on any points, but will endeavour to show the general trend of my thoughts on the subject.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , January 1921 , pp. 21 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1921

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References

page 21 note 1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. lxi, 1905, p. 68.Google Scholar

page 21 note 2 Geogr. Journ., 07, 1907, p. 37.Google Scholar

page 21 note 3 “Glacial Phenomena of the country between the Tyne and the Wansbeck”: Trans. Nat, Hist. Soc. Northumberland, etc., 1914. “Glacial Geology of Northumberland”: ibid., 1908.

page 21 note 4 “Glacial Deposits around Newcastle-upon-Tyne”: Proc. Univ. Durham Phil. Soc., 1909.Google Scholar

page 21 note 5 “Glacial Phenomena of the Vale of Derwent”: ibid., 1909.

page 21 note 6 “The Scandinavian Drift of the Durham Coast”: Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. lxxi, 1915, pp. 53–82.Google Scholar “On a Deposit of Interglacial Loess and some transported Freshwater Clays on the Durham Coast”: Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. lxxv, pt. iii, 1920, pp. 173–203.Google Scholar

page 21 note 7 “The Preglacial Wash”: Proc. Univ. Durham Phil. Soc., 1906. “Borings at Derwenthaugh and Durston”: ibid., 1909. “Geology of N.E. Durham and S.E. Northumberland”: Geol. Assoc., 1912, etc. There is also a large amount of carefully recorded data in the Boulders Com. Reports of the Univ. Durham Phil. Soc., 1905–1912.

page 22 note 1 Geikie, J., The Great Ice Age. And other authors.Google Scholar

page 22 note 2 Lamplugh, Address to the Geological Section, British Association, York, 1906, etc. It has also been asserted recently by a Swiss geologist that there is no evidence of true Interglacial periods in the Glacial deposits of Switzerland.Google Scholar

page 22 note 3 Trechmann, , op. jam cit., Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1920.Google Scholar

page 24 note 1 A fuller description of this bed is given later.Google Scholar

page 24 note 2 Op. jam cit., 1920, p. 187.Google Scholar

page 25 note 1 Geogr. Journ., 07, 1907.Google Scholar

page 25 note 2 In this paper all Preglacial valleys are denoted by inverted commas.Google Scholar

page 25 note 3 “Note on Borings at Derwenthaugh and Dunston”: Proc. Univ. Durham Phil. Soc., 1909.Google Scholar

page 25 note 4 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. lxi, 1905, p. 76.Google Scholar

page 25 note 5 Merrick, who has studied the Tyne valley very minutely, has also come to the conclusion that rock-basins were developed along it.Google Scholar

page 25 note 6 “The Preglacial Wash”: Proc. Univ. Durham Phil. Soc., vol. ii, 1906, p. 5.Google Scholar

page 25 note 7 Geogr. Journ., 07, 1907, p, 37.Google Scholar

page 25 note 8 The buried Chalk cliff and associated deposits at Sewerby, near Flamborough Head, is a little above sea-level. Lamplugh states “that they prove that at the beginning of glacial times the North Sea held possession of its basin, and with a surprisingly slight difference from the present level”. I have always doubted that the level at the beginning of Glacial times was the same as the present. I consider it to have been more elevated. It is not certain that the Sewerby raised beach is not an Interval-deposit. (Or, as suggested by Trechmann, op. jam eit., p. 190, an Interglacial one.)Google Scholar

page 25 note 9 Trechmann, , Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. lxxv, pt. iii, 1920, p. 193.Google Scholar

page 26 note 1 Professor Bonney (Presidential Address, Brit. Assoc., Sheffield, 1910, p. 23) has endeavoured to show that the Norwegian deep off the south-west coast of Norway would offer a difficulty to the passage of an ice-sheet, but I am in agreement with Dr. Trechmann when he states that this deep need not be considered as presenting a difficulty, and I also consider that the evidence (distribution of boulders, marine shell-bearing gravels and sands pushed inland, etc.) proves that the Scandinavian ice did actually move over the North Sea area, and that a lobe impinged on the Durham coast near Castle Eden.Google Scholar

page 26 note 2 Trechmann, , op. jam cit., p. 186.Google Scholar

page 26 note 3 e.g. the deposit at Horsebridge Head.Google Scholar

page 26 note 4 Minor glaciers in the Cheviots and Pennines are not considered here, e.g. a glacier came down the Wear valley and was confluent with the Northumberland ice on the north and Lake District (Shap) ice on the south.Google Scholar

page 26 note 5 Boulders of olivine-basalt, most probably from the Firth of Forth, occur in the clay at Fulwell Quarries and of St. Abb's porphyrite in that near Tynemouth.Google Scholar

page 26 note 6 Three miles and 8 miles west of Barnard Castle respectively.Google Scholar

page 26 note 7 It appears highly probable that boulders of Shap granite do occur in the Drift of the Tyne valley. The evidence for their occurrence is very strong.Google Scholar

page 26 note 8 Along the coast of Northumberland from Bamborough to the Wansbeck there are two boulder clays of different origin, a lower typical bluish clay mainly of western derivation and an upper reddish clay of Tweed valley and northern origin. Smythe, Glacial Geology of Northumberland, p. 94. In a depression at Hartlepool there is a boulder clay with only Western erratics (Trechmann, op. jam cit., 1920, p. 191), and at Horsebridge Head there is a deposit containing Scottish rocks beneath the Western derived boulder clay.Google Scholar

page 27 note 1 Smythe, , op. jam cit., pp. 89–90.Google Scholar

page 27 note 2 We as yet know nothing about either the Indicator boulders or the direction of the striæ; in the floor of the Preglacial “Sleekburn”,“Tyne”, or “Tees”.Google Scholar

page 28 note 1 Adopting the classification of fluvio-glacial mounds and ridges into Kaims, Eskers, and Ösars proposed by Professor Gregory in a paper read before the Royal Society on April 29, 1920 (Geol. Mag., June, 1920), those of Northumberland and Durham are all Kaims. They were formed along the margin of the ice-sheet, some being deposited in glacier-lakes and others not.Google Scholar

page 28 note 2 “Glacial Geology of Northumberland”: op. jam cit., p. 104.Google Scholar

page 28 note 3 Warden Law is 5 miles inland and 646 feet above sea-level. The gravels are 200 feet thick. Grindon is about the same distance inland.Google Scholar

page 28 note 4 “Geology of N.E. Durham and S.E. Northumberland”: op. jam cit., p. 102.Google Scholar

page 28 note 5 A list of shell-fragments collected in these Kaims by Trechmann is given in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. lxxv, pt. iii, 1920, p. 194. They are 4 miles inland, and about 400 feet high.Google Scholar

page 28 note 6 I have collected shell-fragments from the gravels at Dalton Piercy, near Hartlepool.Google Scholar

page 28 note 7 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. lviii, 1902, pp. 471–571.Google Scholar

page 29 note 1 Kendall, & Huff, , Trans. Edin. Geol. Soc., vol. viii, 1902, pp. 226–30; Woolacott, Geogr. Journ., July, 1907; Smythe, Glacial Geology of Northumberland, 1912.Google Scholar

page 29 note 2 Dwerryhouse, , “Glaciation of Teesdale” etc.: Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. lviii. 1902, pp. 572–608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 29 note 3 Herdman, , “Glacial Phenomena of the Vale of Derwent”: Proc. Univ. Durham Phil. Soc., vol. iii, pt. iii, 1909.Google Scholar

page 29 note 4 Glacial Geology of Northumberland, 1912.Google Scholar

page 29 note 5 Ibid., p. 104

page 29 note 6 Woolacott, , Geogr. Journ., 1907, p. 43, and Trechmann, op. jam cit., Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1920, p. 192.Google Scholar

page 29 note 7 Smythe, , Glacial Geology of Northumberland, p. 106. The course of this valley was probably first of all determined in Preglacial times by the Irthing, which appears to have been then a tributary of the South Tyne. Woolacott, Geogr. Journ., July, 1909, p. 8.Google Scholar

page 30 note 1 There are several of this type in Northumberland. Smythe, op. jam cit., p. 112.Google Scholar

page 30 note 2 Professor Bonney, discussing the glacier-lakes of Cleveland (Pres. Address, B. A. Sheffield, 1910, p. 29) has suggested that “the so-called overflow channels much more closely resemble the remnants of ancient valley-systems… and they suggest that the main features of this picturesque upland were developed before rather than after the beginning of the Glacial Epoch” but a detailed examination of most of the more important dry channels of Northumberland, Durham, and Cleveland his convinced me that—with certain exceptions, as for example some on the Permian area of East Durham—it is impossible for the great majority of them to be the remnants of old drainage systems.Google Scholar

page 31 note 1 The Tees valley glacier was probably held up for a time in this region by the Lake District (Shap) ice sweeping over Stainmoor.Google Scholar