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The Midland Valley: Ice-Moulded Lowlands

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Landscapes and Landforms of Scotland

Part of the book series: World Geomorphological Landscapes ((WGLC))

Abstract

The ice moulding of the Midland Valley is a product of ice streaming in the last and earlier ice sheets. The landform evidence of this glacier streamlining is a prominent aspect of urban topography, especially evident in Glasgow’s drumlins and Edinburgh’s crag-and-tail landforms, but is prevalent throughout much of the region in the form of a range of subglacial landforms that also includes drumlinoid drift tails, flutings, ribbed moraine, whalebacks and roches moutonnées. Sequential flowsets derived from the alignment of ribbed moraine and superimposed drumlins record dynamic glacier-flow switches during the last ice-sheet glaciation. Areas comprising both erosional and depositional streamlined forms, typified by the juxtaposition of erosional and depositional crag-and-tail features, are a product of the patchy emplacement of a subglacial deforming layer (till) and represent an important landsystem signature of a mixed (soft and hard) subglacial bed mosaic, which is characteristic of the boundary zone between upland and lowland glaciation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, England, UK

    David J. A. Evans

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  1. David J. A. Evans
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Correspondence to David J. A. Evans .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

    Colin K. Ballantyne

  2. School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

    John E. Gordon

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Evans, D.J.A. (2021). The Midland Valley: Ice-Moulded Lowlands. In: Ballantyne, C.K., Gordon, J.E. (eds) Landscapes and Landforms of Scotland. World Geomorphological Landscapes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71246-4_26

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