The Effects of the Last Glaciation on the North York Moors
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In 1902 Kendall published his monumental work "A System of Glacier
Lakes in the North York Moors." In it he explained how the existence of lakes
and glacial meltwater channels were the result of the moors being completely
surrounded by ice almost 1000ft. thick. The high moorlands (over 800ft.)were not invaded by icesheets or
glaciers and were not of sufficient height to generate their own icesheets or glaciers. |
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Embayments between ice and higher ground as well as
valleys plugged by ice became filled with meltwater
from the glaciers and/or run off from the moors. Ice margins lying parallel
to the hillsides would produce marginal drainage channels. Sometimes the
overflow would come from the icefront itself after
having "squeezed out" the lake, e.g. the Bold Venture Channel.
There are localities which suggest that meltwater
found its way through the ice, leaving eskers, e.g. at Hob Cross. Belcher, a
traveller during the 19th. century described the
channels as "furrows on the aged cheek where tears have ceased to flow".
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The
lakes gradually filled, sometimes overflowing so that one lake became an arm
of another, e.g. Kildale with Eskdale.
The lake overflow could be away from the ice, a direct overflow, or marginal
to the ice front, a marginal overflow. According to Kendall, Eskdale lake overflowed via marginal channels into Wheeldale lake which in turn overflowed via the huge
direct overflow channel of Newtondale gorge into
Lake Pickering, now the Vale of Pickering. Others would overflow cutting a
channel leading to another lake. |
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