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A Pliocene age and origin for the strandflat of the Western Isles of Scotland: a speculative hypothesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 November 2012

ALASTAIR G. DAWSON ,
SUE DAWSON ,
J. ANDREW G. COOPER ,
ALASTAIR GEMMELL  and
RICHARD BATES
ALASTAIR G. DAWSON*
Affiliation:
Aberdeen Institute for Coastal Science and Management (AICSM) School of Geosciences, Department of Geography and Environment, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, ScotlandAB24 3UF
SUE DAWSON
Affiliation:
Geography, School of the Environment, University of Dundee, Dundee, ScotlandDD1 4HN
J. ANDREW G. COOPER
Affiliation:
School of Environmental Sciences, University of Ulster, Coleraine Campus, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, Northern IrelandBT52 1SA
ALASTAIR GEMMELL
Affiliation:
School of Geosciences, Department of Geography and Environment, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, ScotlandAB24 3UF
RICHARD BATES
Affiliation:
School of Geography and Geosciences, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, ScotlandKY16 9UY
*
‡Author for correspondence: [email protected]
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Abstract

A series of very wide (up to 15 km) raised shore platforms in the Scottish Hebrides are identified and described for the first time and are considered part of a high rock platform shoreline in the western isles of Scotland described by W. B. Wright in his classic Geological Magazine paper a century ago as a ‘preglacial’ feature. Subsequent interpretations suggesting that the platforms were produced during the Pleistocene are rejected here in favour of a speculative hypothesis that the features are part of the well-known strandflat that is extensively developed across large areas of the northern hemisphere. It is argued that the Scottish strandflat developed during the Pliocene and was later subjected to extensive Pleistocene glacial erosion such that only a few areas of platform have survived in the Scottish Inner Hebrides (ice-proximal) while they are well-preserved in the Outer Hebrides (ice-distal). Support for a Pliocene hypothesis is provided by the marine oxygen isotope record for this time interval which points to prolonged periods of relative sea level stability as would be required for the production of such wide features. This hypothesis for the formation of a Scottish strandflat not only provides an elegant explanation for the origin and age of the raised rock platform fragments that occur throughout the western isles of Scotland, but it may also have relevance for other coastal areas of the northern hemisphere (e.g. Norway, Greenland, Alaska) where the strandflat is a well-developed feature.

Keywords

coastal rock platformsea level changeglacio-isostasyPleistocenePlioceneeustasyglaciations
Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 150 , Issue 2 , March 2013 , pp. 360 - 366
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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