Background

• Main Authors: Jeremy Everest, Tom Bradwell, Nick Golledge
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Paterson; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.514.745; http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/s0350775/everestetal2005.pdf

Ice streams are bodies of fast-flowing ice that move at much greater velocity than the surrounding ice sheet (Paterson, 1994; Hambrey, 1994). They are the most dynamic component of modern ice sheets, and as such are important drivers of ice-sheet evolution (Stokes & Clark, 1999; Bennett, 2003; Dowdeswell et al., 2004). Empirical studies in Antarctica, for example, have shown that ice streams account for more than 90 % of mass transfer within the ice sheet (Bamber et al., 2000). Moreover, modern ice streams leave behind characteristic landform assemblages when they retreat (Stokes & Clark, 2001; Ó Cofaigh et al., 2002; Dowdeswell et al., 2004). These landsystems or landform assemblages, act as ‘fingerprints ’ that can be compared with suites of landforms in formerly glaciated areas (Fig. 1). The accurate identification of palaeo-ice stream tracks in past glacial environments has aided our understanding of Pleistocene ice-sheet dynamics. This is becoming increasingly important as attempts are made to draw glaciological and climatological conclusions from refined ice-sheet recon-structions in deglaciated regions such as Scotland. Ice streams are known to have existed in the British Ice Sheet (BIS) during the last (Late Devensian) glaciation (Jamieson, 1906; Linton 1959, 1962; Sissons 1963; Knight et al., 1999). Some of these have formal names and are well established in the literature, such as the Irish Sea (Knight et al., 1999), Strathmore (Linton, 1959; Merritt et al., 2003), and Moray Firth (Merritt et al., 1995) ice streams. Others are less well established but have been tentatively identified – e.g.