The Fluvioglacial Landscape near Monington

Thanks to Jonathan Lee and Aberystwyth university, here is another stunning image from North pembrokeshire, made by processing digital stereo aerial photography  -- as mentioned before, we can see altitudinal changes to an accuracy of 2m, with the 3D effect caused through the application of "false lighting and false colour." Low level lighting is thrown from the NE.

What we see here is the extraordinary fluvio-glacial landscape in the area around Monington, on a broad plateau surface midway between Newport and Cardigan.  These features have been known for many years, and have been mapped by many fieldworkers including Prof David Bowen and yours truly  -- but nothing before has shown up these features with this level of accuracy.  Notice that most of the landscape is smooth -- but from the centre of the image up to the top edge, and in some areas to the left, the land surface has "excrescences" or rough blotchy areas which look very different.  These are the fluvioglacial accumulations left behind at the end of the Devensian glaciation -- including eskers, kames, kame terraces and even kettle holes where detached ice masses have melted out.  It was the presence of these features that led Charlesworth in 1929 to define the "South Wales End Moraine" in this area -- thereby triggering off endless debate about ice limits and dating.

These features are not particularly "linear" -- so what are they doing here?  Our best guess at the moment is that the ice extended well to the south of this point, and then when melting started, the ice thinned until the hilltops in this area started to protrude -- setting off enhanced rates of melting, and the accumulation of fluvioglacial materials in the pits and hollows thus created.