Defining the centre of glacio‐isostatic uplift of the last Scottish ice‐sheet: the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy, Scottish Highlands

• Published in: Journal of Quaternary Science
• Main Authors: Dawson, Alastair G., Hampton, Shaun, Fretwell, Peter, Harrison, Stephan, Greengrass, Peter
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2002
• Subjects: Dammed Lake; Tilting; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jqs.712; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fjqs.712; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jqs.712

Abstract The Parallel Roads of Glen Roy, Scottish Highlands, represent a series of ice‐dammed lake shorelines produced during the cold climate of the Younger Dryas. It is shown here that each lake shoreline exhibits evidence of glacio‐isostatic tilting associated with the decay of the last (Late Devensian) ice sheet. The directions of tilting of the three shorelines (in the quadrant between north and east), are at variance with published glacio‐isostatic uplift isobases based on marine shoreline data that suggest a pattern of decreased uplift towards the northwest. The gradient of shoreline tilting (between 0.11 and 0.14 m km −1 ) is similar to measured regional tilts of a well‐developed marine shoreline (the Main Rock Platform) considered to have been produced in Scotland during the same period of extreme cold climate. Consideration of the ice‐dammed lake shoreline data also points to the former occurrence of two separate episodes of tectonic activity during the Younger Dryas. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.