IV.—On Changes of Climate during the Glacial Epoch

1871 ◽  
Vol 8 (90) ◽  
pp. 545-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Geikie
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Climate ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Short Paper ◽  
Glacial Period ◽  
Glacial Deposits ◽  
Arctic Condition ◽  
Glacial Epoch ◽  
Boulder Clay ◽  
Gradual Approach ◽  
Snow And Ice

If one were asked to put into a few words the general results which have been arrived at from a study of the Glacial deposits, he would probably say that these deposits gave evidence of a severe Arctic condition of things having obtained in this country,—that the gradual approach of this Arctic climate caused the disappearance from our area of the fauna and flora which had previously characterized it,—that during the continuance of the cold in Britain several speciesof mammalia appear to have died out in the more southern regions of Europe, whither they had migrated,—and that it was not until after our climate had become greatly ameliorated that these islands were visited by what are termed the “Post-glacial mammalia,” several species of which, however, had been denizens. of Britain and northern Europe inPre-glacial times. In short, our island, throughout the Glacial period proper, is commonly supposed to have remained a barren waste of snow and ice. But the evidence which has been accumulating during recent years will compel us, I believe, to modify materially these general inferences. So far from the Glacial epoch having been one long continuous age of ice, it would appear to have been broken up by many intervening periods of less Arctic, and even temperate conditions, during whichthe snow and ice disappeared from our low grounds, and the glaciers shrunk back into our mountain valleys. I speak, of course, of that portion of the Glacial epoch which was antecedent to the general submergence, and is represented by the Till or Boulder-clay of Scotland. la this short paper I propose to give an outline of the facts upon which these conclusions are based. But before doing so it may be well to point out the order of succession of the Scottish drift deposits, which is now no longer a matter of dispute. Beginning with the lower beds, we have the following sequence

IV.—On Changes of Climate during the Glacial Epoch

1872 ◽  
Vol 9 (93) ◽  
pp. 105-111
Author(s):  
James Geikie
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Warm Period ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Subsequent Paper ◽  
Glacial Deposits ◽  
Glacial Epoch

In my last communication to the Magazine I made an attempt to correlate the Scottish Glacial deposits with the equivalent accumulations in Switzerland, Northern Europe, and North America, my purpose being to show that the same order of succession holds good in all those regions where the “Drifts” have been examined, and that in each case there is no proof whatever of any warm period having intervened since the deposition of the clays with Arctic shells and the decrease and disappearance of local glaciers. In the present and a subsequent paper I propose to treat of the superficial deposits of Ireland and England, more especially those of the latter country.

The Glacial Deposits of Gower

1933 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 208-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Neville George
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Geological Survey ◽  
General Description ◽  
Glacial Deposits ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Different Ages ◽  
Boulder Clay ◽  
Sand And Gravel

A general description of the drifts of Gower has been given in the memoirs of the Geological Survey,1 in which, however, no distinction was made between deposits of different ages. But it has long been known that there are at least two series of Glacial deposits in South-Western Britain, though until recently their relative extents were only surmised: in South Wales the relations of the drifts have been determined only within the last few years.2 As a consequence of this recent work it is clear that the Newer Drift does not extend into Gower much beyond the Sketty-Fairwood-Mumbles neighbourhood, and while the margin of this Newer Drift as determined by Charlesworth may be questioned in detail, especially further west along the Towy Valley,3 yet it is at least certain that the greater part of Gower is (or was) covered by Boulder Clay and gravels of the older drift. The general absence of deposits characteristic of terminal moraines, the “ mature ” topography, and the great amount of erosion that the drift has suffered are sufficiently distinctive, even apart from the extensive mounds of sand and gravel that mark the boundary of the Newer Drift further east.

scholarly journals III.—On the Structure of the Valleys of the Blackwater and the Crough, and of the East Essex Gravel, and on the Relation of this Gravel to the Denudation of the Weald

1866 ◽  
Vol 3 (26) ◽  
pp. 348-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Searles V. Wood
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Glacial Period ◽  
The South ◽  
Northern Boundary ◽  
The North ◽  
Complete Order ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Boulder Clay ◽  
London Clay

In a paper in this Magazine, upon the structure of the Thames Valley, I endeavoured to show that instead of being, as had been asserted, a valley of similar structure to those of the Somme and Seine, and containing deposits of nearly similar order and age, the valley in which the Thames gravel was deposited possessed no outlet to what is now the North Sea, being divided from it by a range of high gravelless country; and that, in lieu of such an outlet, the valley opened, in more than one part, over what is now the bare Chalk country forming the northern boundary of the Valley of the Weald. I also endeavoured to show that all the deposits of the Thames Valley, except the peat and marsh clay, belonged to several successive stages, marking the gradual denudation of the Boulderclay, the lower Bagshot, the London Clay, and the subjacent Tertiaries, which had, at the end of the Glacial period, spread over the south-east of England in a complete order of succession: the sea into which this valley discharged occupying, what is now, the Chalk country of the Counties of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Hampshire, inclusive of the interval subsequently scooped out to form the Valley of the Weald: so that, not only was the latter valley newer than that of the Thames, and of the most recent of the Thames Valley deposits, except the peat and marsh clay, but that these deposits in themselves marked a long descent in time from that comparatively remote period of the Boulder-clay.

scholarly journals Some Aspects of Striation

1914 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 434-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. G. Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Difficult Problem ◽  
Glacial Period ◽  
Geological Society ◽  
Boulder Clay

In former parts of these “Proceedings” Dr. W. Allen Sturge, M.V.O., has put forward views concerning the striæ on surface implements, views which are so opposed to the canons of geology and archæology, and involve so great an upheaval of accepted beliefs, that but for the skill with which the facts and conclusions were marshalled, they would not have received a moment's consideration. Few archæologists have the material on which to form a reliable judgment, and fewer still are prepared to accept the upheaval of current views rendered necessary by the adoption of the theory that minor glaciations occurred after the deposition of the chalky boulder clay. Even more revolutionary was the view as to the occurrence of a glacial period at all and this was strenuously fought for many years, and even now is by no means accepted by all geologists. The drift deposits were referred to by old writers as “Extraneous Rubbish,” and were sometimes divided into Diluvium and Alluvium. It was not until 1840, when Agassiz read his paper before the Geological Society on “Glaciers, and the Evidence of their having once existed in Scotland, Ireland, and England,” that this momentous explanation of a vast and difficult problem was given to geologists, and years elapsed before it was generally accepted.

scholarly journals III.—The Raised Beach of North Devon: its relation to others and to Palæolithic Man

1913 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 154-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Dewey
Keyword(s):  
Upper Devonian ◽  
Glacial Period ◽  
Southern England ◽  
Glacial Origin ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Boulder Clay ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

While mapping the Upper Devonian and Carboniferous Rocks in North Devon I took the opportunity of examining the raised beach of Barnstaple Bay and the deposits resting upon it. As a result of my observations I found that the sequence of these deposits is identical bed for bed with that of Cornwall, South Wales, and Southern Ireland, except that in place of the Boulder-clay there is in North Devon a bed of clay with striated stones which may not be of glacial origin. The position of the Boulder-clay over the ancient head, however, corresponds with the position of the bed of glaciated stones and indicates the infra-Glacial age of the ‘head’. The fact that the ‘head’ is contemporaneous with ‘Coombe Rock’ has been held by all geologists familiar with the subject. It is a fact of first-class importance with regard to the relationship of man to the Glacial period, for it proves that man existed before these Boulder-clays were deposited. The evidence is inferential and supplied by the occurrence of Palæolithic implements of Le Moustier type in the Coombe Rock of Southern England and France. Granting, then, that the Le Moustier period is infra-Glacial, it remains to be seen to what Palæolithic period the raised beach belongs. We will proceed to consider the evidence available up to date, commencing with a brief account of the raised beach of North Devon.

V.—Observations on the Sequence of the Glacial Beds

1870 ◽  
Vol 7 (67) ◽  
pp. 17-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. V. Wood
Keyword(s):  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Glacial Period ◽  
Extensive Formation ◽  
Boulder Clay

The Article in this Magazine by Prof. Harkness, “On the Middle Pleistocene Deposits of Britain,” will, I trust, call the attention of geologists more prominently to the fact that a break occurred in the Glacial period, wherein the formation of Boulder-clay was arrested for a considerable interval, and an extensive formation of sands and gravels spread out, accompanied, apparently, by some amelioration of the temperature of the sea. Nevertheless, there are several things pressed by Prof. Harkness into his case as to which a word of caution, and even of dissent, seems necessary.

scholarly journals VI.—The Glacial Phenomena of North America, as studied in Long Island, New York, U.S.

1883 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 169-171
Author(s):  
John Brysen
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
North America ◽  
Long Island ◽  
Difficult Problem ◽  
Glacial Period ◽  
Terminal Moraine ◽  
Boulder Clay

Having resided for some years past on Long Island, the terminal moraine of the Great American continental glacier, and having given considerable attention to the drift phenomena, I am convinced that no oscillation of the continent has taken place subsequent to the Glacial period; and that the river kames, with their assorted gravel, etc., can be accounted for, without resorting to any such doubtful interpretations. I am aware that the presence of shells in the Boulder-clay argues in its favour; but that shells become mixed with the drift while the glacier is in motion is evident from what Prof. Geikie saw in Scandinavia. I will now try in a brief way to give your readers the result of my observations; and, though the sketch may be somewhat crude and imperfect, it may serve to throw a little light on this difficult problem.

Hand-Axes from Glacial Beds at Ipswich

1933 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-184
Author(s):  
J. Reid Moir
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Glacial Period ◽  
East Anglia ◽  
Flat Plateau ◽  
The North ◽  
Boulder Clay ◽  
The Town

As is known, there exists a widespread deposit of what I have called the Upper Chalky Boulder Clay, on the high ground in the neighbourhood of Ipswich, Suffolk. This accumulation is especially well developed to the north and east of the town where it forms the more or less flat plateau, the surface of which lies at approximately 150 O.D. I have already recorded the discoveries of flint implements in the Upper Chalky Boulder Clay in the brickfield of Bolton & Co., Ltd., to the north of Ipswich, and elsewhere. From these discoveries, which include that of an Early Mousterian hand-axe, of necessity re-described in this paper, I have concluded that the Upper Chalky Boulder Clay was laid down by an ice-sheet present in East Anglia at the close of Acheulean times, and is to be referred to the 3rd Glacial Period of this area. It is now my purpose to illustrate and describe three further specimens of Acheulean hand-axes derived from a deposit exposed in various sections in the plateau to the east of Ipswich.

scholarly journals V.—On the South of England Ice-Sheet

1874 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
pp. 257-257
Author(s):  
James Croll
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
American Continent ◽  
The South ◽  
North American Continent ◽  
The North ◽  
Glacial Epoch ◽  
Continuous Mass ◽  
Boulder Clay ◽  
Break Up

In the Reader, 14th October, 1865, and afterwards more fully in my papers on the “Boulder-clay of Caithness,” and on the “ Transport of the Wastdale Crag Blocks,” 2 the following were shown from physical considerations to be necessary results, viz.:—1. That were the ice of Greenland much thicker than it is at present, which it evidently was during the Glacial Epoch, it would not float in Davis Straits and Baffin's Bay, and consequently, would not break up into icebergs, but would move over upon the North American continent in one continuous mass, and pursue its course southwards, until it gradually melted away under the influence of the Sun's heat.

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