THE EROSION SURFACES AND DRAINAGE SYSTEM OF SOUTH-WEST YORKSHIRE

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Summary: Detailed field-work, supplemented by cartographical analysis, has demonstrated the existence in south-west Yorkshire (and in the adjacent parts of north Derbyshire and Cheshire) of a series of erosion surfaces at various heights between about 200 and 1800 ft. There is abundant evidence that the surfaces above about 450 ft. (with the exception of small fragments of certain surfaces preserved as valley-side benches) were cut by the sea. These surfaces appear to have been formed during periods of approximately stationary sea-level at about 1800, 1350 to 1300, 1070, 710, 530 and 500 ft. The lower surfaces are largely or entirely of subaerial origin and are believed to be related to sea-levels at about or below 425-400, 245–225 and 200–190 ft. It is considered probable that the initial surface attacked by the sea was a submerged subaerial peneplain tilted to the east in south-west Yorkshire. This peneplain appears to have been entirely destroyed in this area during the period of intermittent emergence associated with the formation of the erosion surfaces. The present drainage system can only be satisfactorily explained as having evolved from consequent streams initiated upon and extended across the marine erosion surfaces as they were successively exposed by the falling sea-level. In the eastern parts of the area the drainage system has been considerably modified by glaciation.

This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit: