The Glaciation of the Orkney Islands
Open Access
- 1 February 1880
- journal article
- Published by Geological Society of London in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society
- Vol. 36 (1-4) , 648-663
- https://doi.org/10.1144/gsl.jgs.1880.036.01-04.48
Abstract
Introduction: I n a former paper which we communicated to the Society on “ The Glaciation of the Shetland Isles,” we endcavoured to show how the evidence supplied by the striated surfaces, the roches moutonnées , and the dispersal of the stones in the Boulder-clay points to the conclusion that Shethland had been glaciated by Scandinavian ice. It was further argued that during the climax of glacial cold the Scandinavian and Scotch ice-sheets coalesced on the floor of the North Sea, and that the great outlet for the combined ice-sheets was towards the north-west by the Pentland Firth and the Orkney Islands. In the course of the autumn of 1879 we visited nearly all the Orkney Islands for the purpose of continuing our researches with reference to the extension of the ice in the North Sea in the Glacial period. In the paper now presented to the Society we purpose to give a summary of the results of our observations. At the outset we may state that they furnish a remarkable confirmation of the conclusions already arrived at regarding the westerly and northwesterly movement of the ice. Moreover, the presence of stones in the Boulder-clay, which must have been derived from the mainland of Scotland, and the discovery of abundant remains of marine shells in the same deposit, though in a fragmentary state, are of the utmost importance in guiding us to a satisfactory solution of the question. No description of the glacial phenomena of Orkney has hitherto been published. Some references wereKeywords
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