The Periglaciation of Great Britain

About this book

A climate of arctic severity prevailed in Britain throughout much of the last two million years, resulting in the widespread formation of a great range of periglacial landforms and deposits. Many of these features provide key evidence for understanding the evolution of the present landscape and reconstructing former climate. Appreciation of the significance of periglacial deposits and structures is also important in many engineering operations and in understanding the development of present-day soils. The Periglaciation of Great Britain, first published in 1994, provides a synthesis of theory in periglacial geomorphology and applies this to the study of periglacial phenomena in Great Britain. The first part of the book introduces the chronological and environmental background to periglaciation in Britain. The second and third parts deal respectively with the periglaciation of lowland Britain and upland Britain. The Periglaciation of Great Britain concludes by considering the implications of periglacial phenomena for environmental reconstruction.
 

Contents

Part I. Introduction and Context:
1. Introduction
2. Quaternary environmental change in Great Britain
3. Periglacial environments

Part II. The Periglaciation of Lowland Britain:
4. Ice wedge casts and relict tundra polygons
5. Ground ice depressions and related phenomena
6. Active layer processes: cryoturbation and patterned ground
7. Periglacial mass-wasting and slope evolution in lowland Britain
8. Lowland landscape modification by fluvial and aeolian processes

Part III. The Periglaciation of Up-Land Britain:
9. Frost weathering and mountain-top detritus
10. Patterned ground on British mountains
11. Solifluction landforms in upland Britain
12. Talus slopes and related landforms
13. Nival, fluvial, aeolian and coastal features

Part IV. Periglacial Environments:
14. Past and present periglacial environments

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