Scottish Landform Examples: The Cairngorms – A Pre-glacial Upland Granite Landscape

Auteur(s) et Affiliation(s)



Description :
The Cairngorm massif in NE Scotland is an excellent example of a preglacial upland landscape formed in granite. Glacial erosion in the mountains has been largely confined to valleys and corries and so has acted to dissect a pre-existing upland. Intervening areas of the massif experienced negligible glacial erosion due to protective covers of cold-based ice and preserve a wide range of pre-glacial and non-glacial landforms and regolith. The cliffs that sharply demarcate the edges of glacial valleys and corries allow the main pre-glacial landforms to be easily identified. The former shape of pre-glacial valleys and valley heads can then be reconstructed by extrapolation of contours to provide a model of the pre-glacial relief of the Cairngorms. This relief model provides a basis for understanding the development of the landscape over timescales of many millions of years, including the role of geology, weathering, fluvial erosion and, lately, glacial erosion in shaping the relief.


Type de document :
Article de périodique

Source :
Scottish geographical journal (Online), issn : 1751-665X, 2013, vol. 129, n°. 1, p. 2-14, nombre de pages : 13

Date :
2013

Identifiants :
doi : http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14702541.2012.728243

Editeur :
Pays édition : Royaume-Uni, Abingdon, Taylor and Francis