Cosmogenic 10BE Age Constraints for The Wester Ross Readvance Moraine: Insights Into British Ice-Sheet Behaviour

• Published in: Geografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography
• Main Authors: Everest, Jeremy, Bradwell, Tom, Fogwill, CJ, Kubik, P
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2006
• Subjects: Glaciology; Earth Sciences; Moraine Ridge; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/602/; http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0435-3676.2006.00279.x; https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0435-3676.2006.00279.x

This study presents the first absoluteage constraints from a palaeo-ice-sheet margin in western Scotland. Cosmogenic 10Be from four Lewisian gneiss boulders on the Gairloch Moraine in NW Scotland have yielded reliable exposure ages. Three of these dates, taken from a single moraine ridge, cluster around c. 15.5–18 ka BP, with a weighted mean of 16.3 ± 1.6 ka BP. These findings indicate that the last British Ice Sheet had retreated to the present-day coastline in NW Scotland by this time. It is suggested that the Wester Ross Readvance represents an ice-sheet oscillation during, or in the immediate aftermath of, Heinrich Event 1 (c. 17–18 ka BP).