The high‐level marine shell beds of Scotland and the build‐up of the last Scottish ice sheet

• Published in: Boreas
• Main Author: SUTHERLAND, DONALD G.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1981
• Subjects: Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1502-3885.1981.tb00485.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1502-3885.1981.tb00485.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1502-3885.1981.tb00485.x

It is argued that high‐level shell beds buried by till at various localities around the Scottish coast are in situ and represent a marine transgression immediately prior to and consequent upon loading of the earth's crust by the build‐up of the last Scottish ice sheet. The high‐level rock platforms of the Hebrides may also have been eroded at this time. A relationship between the build‐up of the last Scottish ice sheet and world sea‐level is suggested and it is further argued that the Scottish ice sheet was a more sensitive indicator of the onset (and termination) of a period of northern hemispheric glaciation than either the Laurentide or Scandinavian ice sheets. It is suggested that the build‐up of the last Scottish ice sheet took place in the Early Devensian and a tentative correlation is proposed between the Scottish evidence and the deep‐sea evidence for glacier build‐up at ca. 75,000 years B.P