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Glacial Geomorphology of the Last Irish Ice Sheet

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Advances in Irish Quaternary Studies

Part of the book series: Atlantis Advances in Quaternary Science ((AAQS,volume 1))

Abstract

The landform record of Irish glaciations is reviewed, with an emphasis on the last glaciation (the Late Devensian/Late Midlandian). The glacial geomorphology of the last Irish Ice Sheet has been mapped over generations via field and desk studies and is described at scales ranging from land elements, to landforms, to landscapes. The major morpho-stratigraphic relationships are discussed. Interpretation of the evidence leads to a reconstruction of the glacial history of Late Midlandian ice masses in Ireland, including the extent of corrie glaciation, deglacial moraines, fans, deltas, kame terraces and sandur, and eskers. Subglacial bedform types, their distribution and orientations have been shown to provide important indications of former ice flow directions via the reconstruction of ice flow sets. The latest generations of ice sheet models are outlined which use these new data. Numerical models now form exciting new hypotheses to be tested by this geologic evidence, presenting new conceptual models of the nature (e.g. rapidly fluctuating, binge-purge cycles tuned to regional climate) and scale (e.g. aerially restricted zones of ice streaming and widespread ‘cold ice’ conditions) of former glaciation and dynamics.

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Acknowledgments

Published by permission of the Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland. Dr. Sarah Greenwood of Stockholm University is thanked both for discussion on mapping at the ice sheet scale in Ireland, and for provision of bedforms for Northern Ireland, as depicted in parts of Figs. 9 and 11.

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  1. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin 4, Ireland

    Robert T. Meehan

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  1. Robert T. Meehan
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Correspondence to Robert T. Meehan .

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  1. Department of Geography, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Peter Coxon

  2. Department of Geography, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Maynooth, Ireland

    Stephen McCarron

  3. Department of Botany, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Fraser Mitchell

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Meehan, R.T. (2017). Glacial Geomorphology of the Last Irish Ice Sheet. In: Coxon, P., McCarron, S., Mitchell, F. (eds) Advances in Irish Quaternary Studies. Atlantis Advances in Quaternary Science , vol 1. Atlantis Press, Paris. https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-219-9_4

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