Glacial geomorphology of the central sector of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet

Abstract

Please click here to download the map associated with this article. We here present a glacial geomorphological map covering 11,800 km2, at a scale of 1:550,000, of the central sector of the last (Main Late Devensian) British-Irish Ice Sheet. The map is based on the 5 m resolution NEXTMap dataset. Six landform types have been mapped; subglacial lineations, hummocky terrain, ribbed moraine, meltwater channels, eskers and glaciofluvial sediment accumulations. The subglacial lineations have been further sub-divided into a series of ‘flow sets’ based on their morphology, conformity and length. Over 9,000 individual landforms have been identified within the study area, concentrated predominantly in the lowlands of the Vale of Eden, Solway and over the Tyne and Stainmore Gaps. A palimpsest geomorphic signature characterised by cross-cutting flow-sets is interpreted as evidence that dynamic, multiphase ice flow occurred throughout the Main Late Devensian (marine isotope stage 2) in response to migrating ice dispersal centres and ice divides. A relative chronology has been constructed and interpreted, based on the complex, cross-cutting flow signatures displayed throughout the region.