Abstract
LONDON. Geological Society, April 1.—Bernard Smith: The glacier-lakes of Eskdale, Miterdale, and Wasdale, Cumberland; and the retreat of the ice during the ‘Main Glaciation’. From a review of the available evidence in the north-west of England it is concluded that the Great Ice Age in Cumberland and the Irish Sea basin comprised at least three main episodes. This paper is confined chiefly to the second—that of the ‘Main Glaciation’. The withdrawal of the combined Irish Sea and Lake District ice towards the close of this episode is discussed, and it is concluded that the split between the two ice-sheets progressed northwards, Irish Sea ice tending to shrink on one hand towards the sea-basin westward and north-westward, whilst the Lake District ice—breaking up into tongues or local glaciers—tended to shrink north-eastward and eastward. The stages in the formation of the lakes and their deposits are described, and the positions of the ice-fronts at different times are indicated. Of the deposits, special reference is drawn to beaches, especially those fringing islands, to normal lake-deltas, and to a variety referred to as ‘scale-deltas’.—Rev. Joseph Fowler: The ‘one-hundred foot’ raised beach between Arundel and Chichester. Prestwich, in 1858, assumed that the 15-foot raised beach at Brighton is represented by the 100-foot raised beach west of Arundel. Clement Reid seems to accept this identification. There is, however, no proof, either of (1) any differential movement in the general process of elevation, or (2) a fault between the two series that might account for the discrepancy in levels. Moreover, the ‘rounded shingle’, cited by Prestwich as connecting the two series of marine material, is almost certainly of Tertiary age. It seems safer to assume the presence of two stages of raised beach—a ‘100-foot’ and a ‘15-foot’ beach. Clement Reid appears really to support this view when he is considering the different ages of the Selsey deposits. So also, more recently, does H. J. O. White. Nevertheless, it must be noticed that there is, apparently, no ascertained example of the 100-foot beach east, or of the 15-foot west, of the Arun Valley.
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Societies and Academies. Nature 127, 689–691 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/127689a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/127689a0