A major ice drainage pathway of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet: the Tyne Gap,northern England

The Tyne Gap is a wide pass, situated between the Scottish Southern Uplands and the English Pennines that connects western and eastern England. It was a major ice flow drainage pathway of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet. This study presents new glacial geomorphological and sedimentological data from the Tyne Gap region that has allowed detailed reconstructions of palaeo‐ice flow dynamics during the Late Devensian (Marine Isotope Stage 2). Mapped lineations reveal a complex palimpsest pattern which shows that ice flow was subject to multiple switches in direction. These are summarised into three major ice flow phases. Stage I was characterised by convergent Lake District and Scottish ice that flowed east through the Tyne Gap, as a topographically controlled ice stream. This ice stream was identified from glacial geomorphological evidence in the form of convergent bedforms, streamlined subglacial bedforms and evidence for deformable bed conditions; stage II involved northerly migration of the Solway Firth ice divide back into the Southern Uplands, causing the easterly flow of ice to be weakened, and resulting in southeasterly flow of ice down the North Tyne Valley; and stage III was characterised by strong drawdown of ice into the Irish Sea Ice Basin, thus starving the Tyne Gap of ice and causing progressive ice sheet retreat westwards back across the watershed, prior to ice stagnation. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Timing,pace and controls on ice sheet retreat: an introduction to the BRITICE-CHRONO transect reconstructions of the British–Irish Ice Sheet

Motivated to help improve the robustness of predictions of sea level rise, the BRITICE-CHRONO project advanced knowledge of the former British–Irish Ice Sheet, from 31 to 15 ka, so that it can be used as a data-rich environment to improve ice sheet modelling. The project comprised over 40 palaeoglaciologists, covering expertise in terrestrial and marine geology and geomorphology, geochronometric dating and the modelling of ice sheets and oceans. A systematic and directed campaign, organised across eight transects from the continental shelf edge to a short distance (10s of kilometres) onshore, was used to collect 914 samples which yielded 639 new ages, tripling the number of dated sites constraining the timing and rates of change of the collapsing ice sheet. This special issue synthesises these findings of ice advancing to the maximum extent and its subsequent retreat for each of the eight transects to produce definitive palaeogeographic reconstructions of ice margin positions across the marine to terrestrial transition. These results are used to understand the controls that drove or modulated ice sheet retreat. A further paper reports on how ice sheet modelling experiments and empirical data can be used in combination, and another probes the glaciological meaning of ice-rafted debris.     

Timing and pace of ice-sheet withdrawal across the marine–terrestrial transition west of Ireland during the last glaciation

Understanding the pace and drivers of marine-based ice-sheet retreat relies upon the integration of numerical ice-sheet models with observations from contemporary polar ice sheets and well-constrained palaeo-glaciological reconstructions. This paper provides a reconstruction of the retreat of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS) from the Atlantic shelf west of Ireland during and following the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). It uses marine-geophysical data and sediment cores dated by radiocarbon, combined with terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide and optically stimulated luminescence dating of onshore ice-marginal landforms, to reconstruct the timing and rate of ice-sheet retreat from the continental shelf and across the adjoining coastline of Ireland, thus including the switch from a marine- to a terrestrially-based ice-sheet margin. Seafloor bathymetric data in the form of moraines and grounding-zone wedges on the continental shelf record an extensive ice sheet west of Ireland during the LGM which advanced to the outer shelf. This interpretation is supported by the presence of dated subglacial tills and overridden glacimarine sediments from across the Porcupine Bank, a westwards extension of the Irish continental shelf. The ice sheet was grounded on the outer shelf at ~26.8 ka cal bp with initial retreat underway by 25.9 ka cal bp. Retreat was not a continuous process but was punctuated by marginal oscillations until ~24.3 ka cal bp. The ice sheet thereafter retreated to the mid-shelf where it formed a large grounding-zone complex at ~23.7 ka cal bp. This retreat occurred in a glacimarine environment. The Aran Islands on the inner continental shelf were ice-free by ~19.5 ka bp and the ice sheet had become largely terrestrially based by 17.3 ka bp. This suggests that the Aran Islands acted to stabilize and slow overall ice-sheet retreat once the BIIS margin had reached the inner shelf. Our results constrain the timing of initial retreat of the BIIS from the outer shelf west of Ireland to the period of minimum global eustatic sea level. Initial retreat was driven, at least in part, by glacio-isostatically induced, high relative sea level. Net rates of ice-sheet retreat across the shelf were slow (62–19 m a⁻¹) and reduced (8 m a⁻¹) as the ice sheet vacated the inner shelf and moved onshore. A picture therefore emerges of an extensive BIIS on the Atlantic shelf west of Ireland, in which early, oscillatory retreat was followed by slow episodic retreat which decelerated further as the ice margin became terrestrially based. More broadly, this demonstrates the importance of localized controls, in particular bed topography, on modulating the retreat of marine-based sectors of ice sheets.     

Lithostratigraphy,sedimentation and evolution of the Volta Basin in Ghana

We present a revised lithostratigraphy for the Voltaian Supergroup of Ghana, based on a review of existing literature, interpretations of remotely sensed data and reconnaissance field survey of the Volta Basin. These strata thicken eastwards, to a maximum of between 5 and 6 km adjacent to the Pan-African Dahomeyide orogen. They began to accumulate some time after about 1000 Ma, along the margin of an epicontinental sea. Initial sedimentation, comprising the age-equivalent Kwahu and Bombouaka Groups, shows a cyclical mode of deposition controlled by eustatic changes in sea-level that produced a range of nearshore marine, littoral and terrestrial environments.     

The deglaciation of the western sector of the Irish Ice Sheet from the inner continental shelf to its terrestrial margin

This paper provides a new deglacial chronology for retreat of the Irish Ice Sheet from the continental shelf of western Ireland to the adjoining coastline, a region where the timing and drivers of ice recession have never been fully constrained. Previous work suggests maximum ice-sheet extent on the outer western continental shelf occurred at ~26–24 cal. ka BP with the initial retreat of the ice marked by the production of grounding-zone wedges between 23–21.1 cal. ka BP. However, the timing and rate of ice-sheet retreat from the inner continental shelf to the present coast are largely unknown. This paper reports 31 new terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide (TCN) ages from erratics and ice-moulded bedrock and three new optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages on deglacial outwash. The TCN data constrain deglaciation of the near coast (Aran Islands) to ~19.5–18.5 ka. This infers ice retreated rapidly from the mid-shelf after 21 ka, but the combined effects of bathymetric shallowing and pinning acted to stabilize the ice at the Aran Islands. However, marginal stability was short-lived, with multiple coastal sites along the Connemara/Galway coasts demonstrating ice recession under terrestrial conditions by 18.2–17. ka. This pattern of retreat continued as ice retreated eastward through inner Galway Bay by 16.5 ka. South of Galway, the Kilkee–Kilrush Moraine Complex and Scattery Island moraines point to late stage re-advances of the ice sheet into southern County Clare ~14.1–13.3 ka, but the large errors associated with the OSL ages make correlation with other regional re-advances difficult. It seems more likely that these moraines are the product of regional ice lobes adjusting to internal ice-sheet dynamics during deglaciation in the time window 17–16 ka.     

Nutrient and carbon removal ratios and fluxes in the Ross Sea, Antarctica

Net community production (NCP) and nutrient deficits (Def(X)) were calculated using decreases in dissolved CO₂ and nutrient concentrations due to biological removal in the upper 200 m of the water column during four cruises in the Ross Sea, Antarctica along 76°30′S in 1996 and 1997. A comparison to excess dissolved and particulate organic carbon showed close agreement between surplus total organic carbon (TOC) and NCP during bloom initiation and productivity maximum; however, when TOC values had returned to low wintertime values NCP was still significantly above zero. This seasonal NCP, 3.9±1 mol C m⁻², must be equivalent to the particle export to depths greater than 200 m over the whole productive season. We estimate that the annual export was 55±22% of the seasonal maximum in NCP. The fraction of the seasonal maximum NCP that is exported through 200 m is significantly higher than that measured by moored sediment traps at a depth of 206 m. The removal of carbon, nitrate and phosphate (based on nutrient disappearance since early spring) and their ratios showed significant differences between regions dominated by diatoms and regions dominated by the haptophyte Phaeocystis antarctica. While the ΔC/ΔN removal ratio was similar (7.8±0.2 for diatoms and 7.2±0.1 for P. antarctica), the ΔN/ΔP and ΔC/ΔP removal ratios for diatoms (10.1±0.3 and 80.5±2.3) were significantly smaller than those of P. antarctica (18.6±0.4 and 134.0±4.7). The similarity in ΔC/ΔN removal ratios of the two assemblages suggests that preferential uptake of phosphate by diatoms caused the dramatic differences in ΔC/ΔP and ΔN/ΔP removal ratios. In contrast to low ΔC/ΔP and ΔN/ΔP removal ratio in diatom-dominated areas early in the growing season, deficit N/P and C/P ratios in late autumn indicate that the elemental stochiometry of exported organic matter did not deviate significantly from traditional Redfield ratios. Changes in biologically utilized nutrient and carbon ratios over the course of the growing season indicated either a substantial remineralization of phosphate or a decrease in phosphate removal relative to carbon and total inorganic nitrogen over the bloom period. The species dependence in C/P ratios, and the relative constancy in the C/N ratios, makes N a better proxy of biological utilization of CO₂.     

Investigating slow-moving landslides in the Zhouqu region of China using InSAR time series

In the Zhouqu region (Gansu, China), landslide distribution and activity exploits geological weaknesses in the fault-controlled belt of low-grade metamorphic rocks of the Bailong valley and severely impacts lives and livelihoods in this region. Landslides reactivated by the Wenchuan 2008 earthquake and debris flows triggered by rainfall, such as the 2010 Zhouqu debris flow, have caused more than 1700 casualties and estimated economic losses of some US$0.4 billion. Earthflows presently cover some 79% of the total landslide area and have exerted a strong influence on landscape dynamics and evolution in this region. In this study, we use multi-temporal Advanced Land Observing Satellite and Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (ALOS PALSAR) data and time series interferometric synthetic aperture radar to investigate slow-moving landslides in a mountainous region with steep topography for the period December 2007–August 2010 using the Small Baseline Subsets (SBAS) technique. This enabled the identification of 11 active earthflows, 19 active landslides with deformation rates exceeding 100 mm/year and 20 new instabilities added into the pre-existing landslide inventory map. The activity of these earthflows and landslides exhibits seasonal variations and accelerated deformation following the Wenchuan earthquake. Time series analysis of the Suoertou earthflow reveals that seasonal velocity changes are characterized by comparatively rapid acceleration and gradual deceleration with distinct kinematic zones with different mean velocities, although velocity changes appear to occur synchronously along the landslide body over seasonal timescales. The observations suggest that the post-seismic effects (acceleration period) on landslide deformation last some 6–7 months.     

Late Devensian deglaciation of the Tyne Gap Palaeo‐Ice Stream,northern England

The deglacial history of the central sector of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet is poorly constrained, particularly along major ice‐stream flow paths. The Tyne Gap Palaeo‐Ice Stream (TGIS) was a major fast‐flow conduit of the British–Irish Ice Sheet during the last glaciation. We reconstruct the pattern and constrain the timing of retreat of this ice stream using cosmogenic radionuclide (¹⁰Be) dating of exposed bedrock surfaces, radiocarbon dating of lake cores and geomorphological mapping of deglacial features. Four of the five ¹⁰Be samples produced minimum ages between 17.8 and 16.5 ka. These were supplemented by a basal radiocarbon date of 15.7 ± 0.1 cal ka BP, in a core recovered from Talkin Tarn in the Brampton Kame Belt. Our new geochronology indicates progressive retreat of the TGIS from 18.7 to 17.1 ka, and becoming ice free before 16.4–15.7 ka. Initial retreat and decoupling of the TGIS from the North Sea Lobe is recorded by a prominent moraine 10–15 km inland of the present‐day coast. This constrains the damming of Glacial Lake Wear to a period before ∼18.7–17.1 ka in the area deglaciated by the contraction of the TGIS. We suggest that retreat of the TGIS was part of a regional collapse of ice‐dispersal centres between 18 and 16 ka.

     

Interpretation of tensor gravity data using an adaptive tilt angle method

Full Tensor Gravity Gradiometry (FTG) data are routinely used in exploration programmes to evaluate and explore geological complexities hosting hydrocarbon and mineral resources. FTG data are typically used to map a host structure and locate target responses of interest using a myriad of imaging techniques. Identified anomalies of interest are then examined using 2D and 3D forward and inverse modelling methods for depth estimation. However, such methods tend to be time consuming and reliant on an independent constraint for clarification. This paper presents a semi‐automatic method to interpret FTG data using an adaptive tilt angle approach. The present method uses only the three vertical tensor components of the FTG data (T_zx, T_zy and T_zz) with a scale value that is related to the nature of the source (point anomaly or linear anomaly). With this adaptation, it is possible to estimate the location and depth of simple buried gravity sources such as point masses, line masses and vertical and horizontal thin sheets, provided that these sources exist in isolation and that the FTG data have been sufficiently filtered to minimize the influence of noise. Computation times are fast, producing plausible results of single solution depth estimates t hat relate directly to anomalies. For thick sheets, the method can resolve the thickness of these layers assuming the depth to the top is known from drilling or other independent geophysical data. We demonstrate the practical utility of the method using examples of FTG data acquired over the Vinton Salt Dome, Louisiana, USA and basalt flows in the Faeroe‐Shetland Basin, UK. A major benefit of the method is the ability to quickly construct depth maps. Such results are used to produce best estimate initial depth to source maps that can act as initial models for any detailed quantitative modelling exercises using 2D/3D forward/inverse modelling techniques.