Loch Lomond Stadial
Artist’s reconstruction of cirque glaciers on the island of Rum off the west coast of Scotland. ©British Geological Survey / NERC. All rights reserved. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk.
After the Devensian glaciation had ended, there was a short cold period known as the Loch Lomond Stadial (LLS). This lasted about 1000 years from 11-10,000 years ago (Holden 2012).
In the LLS, small cirque glaciers formed in the UK in areas such as the highlands of Scotland, the Lake District in northwest England and Snowdonia in north Wales.
The LLS was probably the last time that there were glaciers in the UK, although recent research has suggested that small cirque glaciers may have persisted in the Cairngorm Mountains until as recently as 400 years ago (Harrison et al. 2014 and Kirkbride et al. 2014).
Where in Britain would glaciers be most likely to form, if temperatures started cooling at the start of the next glaciation? Try thinking about this in terms of glacier mass balance concepts.
Think about places where there would be more snow (i.e. increased accumulation) and/or less melting (i.e. reduced ablation). Both of these factors would make the mass balance more positive and would thus encourage the formation of a glacier. Examples could include:
- High elevation areas such as Snowdonia or the Cairngorms. This is for two reasons (a) because there will be more snowfall higher up and (b) because the temperatures are colder there, so there will be less melting. This gives the snow a better chance of surviving the summer.
- North facing sites such as the north slopes of any mountain areas (including north east and north west) because these areas are facing away from the sun so would experience less melting.
- Sheltered sites such as gullies or cirques. These sites are shaded from the sun for longer so would experience less melting.
- Western parts of the UK, because most of the weather systems come from the west and hence precipitation is often higher on western coasts.