Periglacial Carningli

 

Thanks to Hugh Thomas and his Preseli360 site for this great drone image -- showing the south-facing flank of Carningli, with the rock outcrops of dolerite almost entirely obliterated by great accumulations of scree.  This is intriguing, since scree accumulations generally (in the northern hemisphere) accumulate on the shady or north-facing sides of mountains. Here the shady side has a gentler gradient, and there are abundant bedrock exposures showing significant ice moulding features.  So my explanation is that there was probably a substantial windscoop feature here at a time when the summit of the mountain was a nunatak.  The relatively warm summer rock surfaces might have helped to keep the windscoop open, but long winters (with freeze-thaw processes dominant) would have allowed substantial rockface disintigtration and scree accumulation.