Pages

Sunday, 8 September 2024

The view from Pwllheli





There are always parallels.  I was looking for an illustration of what things might have looked like at the northern end of Cardigan Bay around the time of the LGM  and I found this splendid image of the Lower Skelton Glacier in Antarctica....

Just imagine that the photo was taken above Pwllheli, looking south.  On the right is Cardigan Bay, filled with the streaming ice of the Irish Sea Ice Stream.  On the left are the uplands of north Wales, with mountainous headlands separated by deep troughs carrying ice from the Welsh Ice Cap.  The junction between Welsh ice and Irish Sea ice runs along near the centre of the image, near the line of the present coast, with areas of dead ice separated by tributary streams of Welsh ice which are diverted southwards.  At first the Welsh ice dominates, with the contact zone pushed over towards the right (west) edge of the photo.  Any deposits laid on the coast are related to this Welsh ice.  But then the Irish Sea Ice dominates, pushing the contact zone in towards the mountain front.  Deposits laid along the position of the modern coast are nor related to this powerful ice stream carrying erratics from the north, including some from Scotland.......

There's nothing new under the sun.......




No comments:

Post a Comment

Please leave your message here