Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T08:26:02.991Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Pliocene age and origin for the strandflat of the Western Isles of Scotland: a speculative hypothesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 November 2012

ALASTAIR G. DAWSON ,
SUE DAWSON ,
J. ANDREW G. COOPER ,
ALASTAIR GEMMELL  and
RICHARD BATES
ALASTAIR G. DAWSON*
Affiliation:
Aberdeen Institute for Coastal Science and Management (AICSM) School of Geosciences, Department of Geography and Environment, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, ScotlandAB24 3UF
SUE DAWSON
Affiliation:
Geography, School of the Environment, University of Dundee, Dundee, ScotlandDD1 4HN
J. ANDREW G. COOPER
Affiliation:
School of Environmental Sciences, University of Ulster, Coleraine Campus, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, Northern IrelandBT52 1SA
ALASTAIR GEMMELL
Affiliation:
School of Geosciences, Department of Geography and Environment, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, ScotlandAB24 3UF
RICHARD BATES
Affiliation:
School of Geography and Geosciences, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, ScotlandKY16 9UY
*
‡Author for correspondence: a.dawson@abdn.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A series of very wide (up to 15 km) raised shore platforms in the Scottish Hebrides are identified and described for the first time and are considered part of a high rock platform shoreline in the western isles of Scotland described by W. B. Wright in his classic Geological Magazine paper a century ago as a ‘preglacial’ feature. Subsequent interpretations suggesting that the platforms were produced during the Pleistocene are rejected here in favour of a speculative hypothesis that the features are part of the well-known strandflat that is extensively developed across large areas of the northern hemisphere. It is argued that the Scottish strandflat developed during the Pliocene and was later subjected to extensive Pleistocene glacial erosion such that only a few areas of platform have survived in the Scottish Inner Hebrides (ice-proximal) while they are well-preserved in the Outer Hebrides (ice-distal). Support for a Pliocene hypothesis is provided by the marine oxygen isotope record for this time interval which points to prolonged periods of relative sea level stability as would be required for the production of such wide features. This hypothesis for the formation of a Scottish strandflat not only provides an elegant explanation for the origin and age of the raised rock platform fragments that occur throughout the western isles of Scotland, but it may also have relevance for other coastal areas of the northern hemisphere (e.g. Norway, Greenland, Alaska) where the strandflat is a well-developed feature.

Keywords

coastal rock platformsea level changeglacio-isostasyPleistocenePlioceneeustasyglaciations
Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 150 , Issue 2 , March 2013 , pp. 360 - 366
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aarseth, I. & Fossen, H. 2004. Late Quaternary cryoplanation of rock surfaces in lacustrine environments in the Bergen area, Norway. Norwegian Journal of Geology 84, 125–37.Google Scholar
Coope, G. R., Dickson, D., Jones, R. L. & Keen, D. H. 1986. Late Pleistocene palaeoenvironments of the Channel Islands and Lower Normandy. Bulletin de L'Association Francaise pour l'etude du Quaternaire 25 (6), 110–14.Google Scholar
Corner, G. D. 2005. Atlantic Coast and Fjords. In The Physical Geography of Fennoscandia (ed. Seppala, M.), pp. 200–28. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dahl, E. 1947. On the origin of the strandflat. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift 11, 159–71.Google Scholar
Dawson, A. G. 1979. Polar and non-polar shore platform development. Papers in Geography, 6, 1–28. Bedford College, University of London. ISBN 0900145501.Google Scholar
Dawson, A. G. 1980. Shore erosion by frost: an example from the Scottish Lateglacial. In Studies in the Lateglacial of NW Europe (eds Lowe, J. J., Gray, J. M. & Robinson, J. E.), pp. 45–53. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dawson, A. G. 1993. Northern Islay. In Quaternary of Scotland: Geological Conservation Review Series (eds Gordon, J. E., & Sutherland, D. G.), pp. 378–82. London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar
Dawson, A. G. 1994. Strandflat development and Quaternary shorelines on Tiree and Coll, Scottish Hebrides. Journal of Quaternary Science 9, 349–56.Google Scholar
Dawson, A. G., Matthews, J. A. & Shakesby, R. A. 1987. Rock platform erosion on periglacial shores: a modern analogue for Pleistocene rock platforms in Britain. In Pleistocene Periglacial Processes and Modern Analogues (ed. Boardman, J.), pp. 173–82. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Eden, M. J. & Green, C. P. 1971. Some aspects of granite weathering and tor formation on Dartmoor, England. Geografiska Annaler, Series A Physical 53, 92–9.Google Scholar
Gray, J. M. & Ivanovich, M. 1988 Age of the main rock platform, western Scotland. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 68, 337–45.Google Scholar
Holtedahl, O. 1929. On the geology and physiography of some Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands with notes on the character and origin of fjords and strandflats of some northern lands. In Scientific Results of the Norwegian Antarctic Expeditions 1927–1928 (ed. Holtedahl, O.). Oslo: I Kommisjon Hos Jacob Dybwad.Google Scholar
Holtedahl, H. 1998. The Norwegian strandflat — a geomorphological puzzle. Norsk Geologisk Tidsskrift 78, 47–66.Google Scholar
Isphording, W. C. 1970. Late Tertiary palaeoclimate of the Eastern United States. Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 54. doi: 10.1306/5D25C999-16C1-11D7-8645000102C1865D.Google Scholar
Jahn, A. 1961. Quantitative analysis of some periglacial processes in Spitsbergen. Uniwersytet Wraclawski in Poleslawa Bieruta Zesvytynankowe, Nauki Przyrodnicze (Series B) 5, 1–34.Google Scholar
Jordan, J. T., Smith, D. E., Dawson, S. & Dawson, A. G. 2010. Holocene relative sea-level changes in Harris, Outer Hebrides, Scotland, UK. Journal of Quaternary Science 25 (2), 115–34.Google Scholar
Kranck, E. 1950. On the geology of the east coast of Hudson Bay and James Bay. Acta Geografiska Societas Fennia, Helsinki 11, 1–71.Google Scholar
Larsen, E. & Holtedahl, H. 1985. The Norwegian strandflat: a reconsideration of its age and origin. Norsk Geologiske Tidsskrift 65, 247–54.Google Scholar
Larsen, H. C., Saunders, A. D., Clift, P. D., Beget, J., Wei, W., Spezzaferri, S. & ODP Leg 152 Scientific Party 1994. Seven million years of glaciation in Greenland. Science 264 (5161), 952–5. doi: 10.1126/science.264.5161.952.Google Scholar
Le Coeur, C. 1988. Late Tertiary warping and erosion in western Scotland. Geografiska Annaler, Series A Physical Geography, 70, 361–67.Google Scholar
Mangerud, J., Gyllencreutz, R., Lohne, O. & Svendsen, J-I. 2011. Glacial history of Norway. In Quaternary Glaciations — Extent and Chronology: A Closer Look. (eds Ehlers, J., Gibbard, P. L. & Hughes, P. D.), pp. 279–98. Developments in Quaternary Science 15. Elsevier.Google Scholar
Matthews, J. A., Dawson, A. G. & Shakesby, R. A. 1986. Lake shoreline development, frost weathering and rock platform erosion in an alpine periglacial environment, Jotunheimen, southern Norway. Boreas 15, 33–50.Google Scholar
McCann, S. B. 1968. Raised rock platforms in the western Isles of Scotland. In Geography at Aberystwyth (eds Bowen, E. G., Carter, H. & Taylor, J. A.), pp. 22–34. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
McCann, S. B. & Richards, A. 1969. The coastal features of the island of Rhum in the Inner Hebrides. Scottish Journal of Geology, 5, 15–25.Google Scholar
Moign, A. 1974. Géomorphologie du strandflat au Svalbard; problémes (âge, origine, processus) méthodes de travail. Inter-Nord 13–14, 57–72.Google Scholar
Nansen, F. 1922. The strandflat and isostasy. Videnskaps Selskapets Skrifter 1. Mathem.-Naturw. Klasse. 1921 (Kristiana), 11.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, A. 1981. The deglaciation of the Coastal area NW of Svartisen, northern Norway. Norges Geologiske Undersokelse 369, 1–31.Google Scholar
Raymo, M. E., Hearty, P., De Conto, R., O'Leary, M., Dowsett, H. J., Robinson, M. M. & Mitrovica, J. T. 2009. PLIOMAX: Pliocene maximum sea level project. PAGES News 17 (2), 58–9.Google Scholar
Richards, A. 1969. Some aspects of the evolution of the coastline of North East Skye. Scottish Geographical Magazine, 85, 122–31.Google Scholar
Sissons, J. B. 1967. The Evolution of Scotland's Scenery. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd.Google Scholar
Sissons, J. B. 1982. The so-called high ‘interglacial’ rock shoreline of western Scotland. Transactions, Institute of British Geographers, New Series 7, 205–16.Google Scholar
Trenhaile, A. S. 1983. The width of shore platforms: a theoretical approach. Geografiska Annaler 65A, 147–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trenhaile, A. S. 1989. Sea level oscillations and the development of rock coasts. In Applications in Coastal Modeling (eds Lakhan, V. C. & Trenhaile, A. S.), pp. 271–95. Elsevier.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trenhaile, A. S. 2001. Modeling the Quaternary evolution of shore platforms and erosional continental shelves. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 26, 1103–28.Google Scholar
Twidale, C. R., Bourne, J. A. & Romani, J. R. V. 2005. Beach etching and shore platforms. Geomorphology 67, 47–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, W. B. 1911. On a preglacial shoreline in the western isles of Scotland. Geological Magazine (Decade 5) 48, 97–109.Google Scholar
Zachos, J. C., Dickens, G. R. & Zeebe, R. E. 2008. An early Cenozoic perspective on greenhouse warming and carbon-cycle dynamics. Nature 451, 279–83. doi:10.1038/nature06588.Google Scholar