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Tuesday, 21 January 2025

A Scottish erratic at Morvil?



I have been looking again at this report:

Burt, C., Aspden, J., Davies, J., Hall, M., Schofield, D., Sheppard, T., Waters, R., Wilby, P., Williams, M. (2012). Geology of the Fishguard district: a brief explanation of the geological map Sheet 210 Fishguard. British Geological Survey.

https://webapps.bgs.ac.uk/memoirs/docs/B06909.html
 
It's 13 years old now, but while much of the text is dated and rather confused there is some interesting material.  For example:  

In the Eastern Cleddau area, a small incised body of hummocky glacial deposits north of Alltypityll [SM 113 250], similar to materials found in the adjacent Newcastle Emlyn district, is also considered a remnant of an earlier ice advance (Wilby et al., 2007b). Benches and mounds of glaciofluvial deposits present in the upper part of the Eastern Cleddau catchment and glaciofluvial sheet deposits in both the Eastern Cleddau and Taf valleys may comprise the denuded remnants of formerly more extensive kame deposits and outwash sheets dating from this 'Penfro' glaciation.

Till deposits to the north of the Preseli Hills are overlain or replaced by heterogeneous glacial deposits comprising poorly sorted, clast-rich, matrix-supported gravel diamictons, thought to represent proglacial debris. A ridge of such hetregeneous debris immediately east of Llanerch [SN 058 355] may mark the terminal position of a small glacier in the upper reaches of the Gwaun valley.

In the present district, outwash sands and gravels, in the form of Devensian glaciofluvial sheet deposits, were deposited in front of the retreating ice margin (Plate 8). Extensive spreads in the Western Cleddau and the Anghof valley, for example at Stradland Farm [SM 995 265], were sourced from the western tongue of the Devensian ice-sheet. Erratic clasts, including gneissic rocks from northern Britain, for example at Morvil Farm [SN 037 307], Puncheston, confirm an Irish Sea provenance. In the north-east of the district ice-contact glacio-fluvial deposits were formed as accumulations of sand and gravel buttressed against the retreating ice. Degraded sand and gravel landforms of uncertain origin in this area are shown as undifferentiated glaciofluvial deposits. 

(Comment:  where is the Morvil erratic?  The grid ref suggests the roadside not far from the church.  Will check it out...........)

Postglacial sea levels continued to rise throughout the early Holocene, only establishing the modern coastline around 5000 years ago. Raised tidal flat deposits comprising organic-rich clays and silts found at Newport and impounded behind barrier storm beaches in a cove [SN 999 393] facing Fishguard Bay represent the earliest, now abandoned coastal zone deposits. They predate the modern beach, storm beach, tidal river and salt marsh deposits (Plate 8). Inland rivers have deposited extensive alluvial tracts including abandoned and incised river terrace deposits and the alluvium of the modern floodplains. Alluvial fan deposits have formed where tributary streams meet larger rivers. Thin peat and peaty soils are widespread in the upland reaches of the district, but thicker and mappable peat accumulations are confined to areas of impeded drainage and ponding as at Wauncledau [SN 163 320]. Lacustrine deposits have accumulated in enclosed hollows in glacial deposits, possibly former kettleholes, as to the north of Newport [SN 064 3999].

More sites to check out......

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