The Ice Age in the Lake District:

An Introduction

 

200 million years have elapsed since the youngest rocks were deposited in the Lake District. Quite likely seas have sometimes covered the region in that time, but any rocks that might have formed have been removed by erosion. For the past 65 million years, the geological history of the Lake District has been dominated by uplift and erosion. This has gradually led to the formation of the mountains we see today. Erosion removed the layers of limestone and sandstone that once covered them, and excavated the pattern of valleys that drain the area today. These radiate out from the heart of the Lake District where the uplift was centred. The Ice Age of the past three million years played a major part in shaping these valleys and creating the landforms we see today.

Over the last 2.6 million years the Earth has been experiencing an Ice Age with fluctuations between hot and cold conditions affecting our latitudes. During cold periods, successive ice sheets and glaciers covered the Lake District; they spread outwards following the radial drainage pattern, and extended to the south. The glaciers of the most recent glaciation (called the Late Devensian), between 26,000 and 10,000 years ago, were responsible for finally shaping the landscape we see today. Ice streams and glaciers flowed outward from the central fells, creating deep lake basins such as Coniston Water, and spread south as far as the Cheshire plain. Deposits of sands and gravels built up beneath the ice sheets and at the edge of the ice, and are a widely used local resource of aggregate materials today.

For more information follow the link below:

The Missing Year and the Ice Ages

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Created by Ruskin Rocks Team, August 2010
Last updated: Rebecca Hildyard, 25 August 2010