Fettes College

About: Fettes College is a education organization based out in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Glacial period & Ice sheet. The organization has 6 authors who have published 13 publications receiving 437 citations.

Limited modification of mid-latitude landscapes by ice sheets: The case of northeast Scotland

Abstract: The paper uses a case study in Scotland to examine the amount and processes of landscape modification by Quaternary ice sheets. There is an inverse correlation between the distribution of landforms of glacial erosion and pre-glacial landscape remnants in northeast Scotland. The implication is that in places ice sheets can preserve a pre-glacial landscape unscathed, while elsewhere they remove the pre-glacial weathered rock. The location of glacial protection or erosion is strongly influenced by the topography and its influence on former ice sheet flow and basal thermal regime. The classic glacially eroded landscape of areal scouring can be produced by the removal of only 10–50 m of weathered rock. Furthermore rock basins, often regarded as the hallmark of glacial erosion, may be directly inherited from the pre-glacial pattern of deep weathering.

Cenozoic weathering covers in Buchan, Scotland and their significance

Abstract: Isolated occurrences of chemically weathered rock or saprolite are common in many formerly glaciated areas around the North Atlantic1–6. These pockets of saprolite are widely regarded as remnants of Cenozoic deep-weathering covers which existed before the first extensive Northern Hemisphere glaciations at ∼2.4 Myr (ref. 7) and their apparent survival has long been used as evidence for the local ineffectiveness of glacial erosion2,4,8,9. However, the scarcity of correlative deposits means that the age and significance of these fragmented saprolites are uncertain. I report here the results of a detailed survey which shows that in Buchan, Scotland, a combination of Cenozoic tectonic stability and extremely limited Pleistocene glacial erosion has allowed the preservation of deep-weathering covers of probable Miocene to early Pleistocene age on a scale not previously reported from any other formerly glaciated area.

Scotland's denudational history: an integrated view of erosion and sedimentation at an uplifted passive margin

Abstract: Denudational history is commonly reconstructed from basin sediments derived from the denuded source area, and less frequently from the source area itself. Northern Britain is an important source area for the surrounding sedimentary basins and this paper reviews the erosional history of Scotland from Devonian time to the present using evidence both from onshore geology and geomorphology and from patterns of sedimentation in surrounding basins. Cover rocks were extensive in Scotland during late Palaeozoic time but the persistence of sediment source areas within the upland areas of Scotland makes it unlikely that basement highs were ever completely buried, and depths of post-Devonian erosion of basement have been correspondingly modest (< 1–2 km). During Mesozoic time, Scotland experienced several major erosional cycles, beginning with uplift, reactivation of relief and stripping of cover rocks, followed by progressive reduction of relief through etchplanation and culminating in extensive marine transgressions in Late Triassic, Late Jurassic and Late Cretaceous time. Mid-Paleocene pulses of coarse sediment to the Moray Firth Basin coincided with major uplift. This uplift was associated with major differential tectonics within the Highlands, with warping and faulting along the margins of the Minch and the inner Moray Firth Basins. Tectonic activity was renewed on a lesser scale in late Oligocene time and continued into Late Neogene time. Differential weathering and erosion under the warm to temperature humid climates of Neogene time created the major elements of the preglacial relief, with formation of valleys, basins, scarps and inselbergs, features often closely adjusted to lithostructural controls and, in some cases, with precursors that can be traced back to Devonian time. The history that can be 'read' from the onshore region complements the source area history interpreted from sedimentary basins derived from these areas.