Sunday 30 June 2024

The Ice Rafted Limeslade Boulder Route


It appears from preliminary results the Famous Limeslade Erratic found on the shoreline of the Mumbles was probably rafted from the shore of Pembrokeshire on an ice flow which was part of a general drift from the Irish Sea to the Bristol Channel. 

See how, "High relative sea level during MIS4 and 3 coincident with adjacent calving ice sheet margins provides an explanation for the rafted giant erratics found around the shores of southern Britain and Ireland": Scourse, J.D. (2024), The timing and magnitude of the British–Irish Ice Sheet between Marine Isotope Stages 5d and 2: implications for glacio-isostatic adjustment, high relative sea levels and ‘giant erratic’ emplacement. J. Quaternary Sci., 39: 505-514. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3611

And: "Another possibility is that the boulders are ice-rafted,since erratic boulders are commonly found on shorelines along the coast of Devon and elsewhere in the Bristol Channel, including as far east as Flat Holm"  Gibbard, Philip & Hughes, Philip & Rolfe, Christopher. (2017). New insights into the Quaternary evolution of the Bristol Channel, UK. Journal of Quaternary Science. 32. 10.1002/jqs.2951.

Excitement over, it was just a tale full of sound and fury but signifying nothing.


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