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After graduating Physical Earth Science B.Sc., I've accepted my place to study Quaternary Science M.Sc., starting in September. While this may seem a slight change in direction from my undergraduate study, it does share many of the broader underpinning themes. While I've previously focused on the palaeontology - click here - of my local area, I thought it would be a good idea to do some research into the interesting Quaternary landscapes that surround me.
Living between the Solway Plain and the Lake District means that there is a real variety on interesting features, from the aretes of Helvellyn to the submerged forests and bogs of the Solway. While these features are quite notably and easily seen; there are some geomorphological features that are obscured or not in popular tourist areas. This includes a local area called Aughertree Fell, which contains glacial meltwater channels that were formed in the Late Devensian- the last glacial period we experienced in the UK. These features are often overlooked as there are Iron Age settlements on the fell, or the 'peak' of Green How- probably the flattest of Wainwright's peaks.
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| Overlooking Aughertree Fell from NY263392. |
One of the best views over Aughertree is from the B5299 (Sandale-Snowhill) road, where all of the channels can be seen. You can also walk through the meltwater channel along a public footpath from the road below Green How to the settlement of Aughertree, which is well worth the walk. From the road, the fell can be seen (below) with the meltwater channels. Channel A dominates the landscape with a large valley like scar (seen below on the left-hand side). Other easily visible channels are I and H which can been seen on the fell side towards Aughertree settlement. Channels B-G are a bit more difficult to spot as they are small incisions in the landscape seen as low points on the horizon of the fell.
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| Overlooking Aughertree Fell from NY263392, with the meltwater channels annotated. |
So what are these meltwater channels? On Aughertree there is a network of channels and incisions on the landscape that have been been formed due to meltwater flowing from glaciers. These channels formed in a variety of settings, beneath the ice before the glacier retreated, after the glaciers retreated and within the glacier itself. The meltwater channels are best described and interpreted in the Cumberland Geological Society's proceedings 1996-1997, vol 6, part 2 [1]. This has been the primary resource in identifying the channels.
While 14 different channels have been identified, channel A is by far the most substantial. This channel is interpreted as being formed by meltwater from the Edenside ice, which potentially produced a glacial lake called Eller Beck Lake which formed below Green How in the area around Clay Gap and the windswept woman of Caldbeck Common (a very old rowan tree). This lake may have outflowed into channel A. The ice-limits, and their position on the landscape have been reconstructed [1] below.
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| Maps including possible ice-limits and position of glacial lakes, meltwater channels and deltas [1]. |
I originally planned to reconstruct the landscape of Aughertree during the Late Devensian deglaciation through a painting, probably a watercolour. To plan the piece I would create a mock up using photographs of the glacial environment. This, however, morphed into a digital piece that would be the final product. To reconstruct the environment, I first needed photographs of a glaciated environment. I have been fortunate to spent a couple of holidays camping around Iceland in 2006 and 2010 and as a result I have a large number of photographs of glacial environments.
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| An Icelandic glacier. |
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| An Icelandic landscape with glacial runoff. |
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| An Icelandic glacier. |
This allowed me to take elements of these photographs, including the landscape and the glaciers, and either directly insert them or blend them into the photographs of Aughertree Fell as it is in the present. The first steps I took were to change the colour balance and lighting of a photograph of the fell (which in itself is a compilation of three separate photographs) to be more suitable. This involved lowing the colour saturation etc, while keeping the lighting of the sky.
I put snow on the background peaks, this somewhat merged the sky into the the landscape. While this results in the skyline loosing definition, it also provides realism. From what I can remember of my travels in Iceland, the glaciers were surprisingly hard to spot from a distance, emerging out of the low cloud and snow. I also added the glaciers in their correct positions, using my Icelandic photos. I had to take care that stripes in the glacier caused by sediment were in the correct orientation. I also began to remove contemporary features such as fence lines, telegraph poles and trees.
I slowly took away each feature (including the sheep) by duplicating other parts of the photograph or inserting features from other photographs and matching the lighting.
The final piece (below) showed a full reconstruction, including the glacial meltwater channel in flow. One or two compromises had to be made, such as the placement of a large bank on the lower right hand side, for the sake of composition, as well as potential scientific inaccuracies such as the type of glacier and degree of vegetation in the periglacial environment.
While I was very happy with the reconstruction, it lacked something- I showed my father who proclaimed that it just looked "like a dreich day over Longlands". I decided to add some interpretation by adding the 'modern' photograph with annotations to the reconstruction with reconstructed features annotated (below). A title and thick white border were added to create 1:1 proportions. This pushes the piece more into an interpretive work instead of an artwork, but overall I am happy with the result.
EDIT: it also looks rather nice framed, with plenty of space to breath due to the large mount and frame (white-washed ash).
[1] Swift, D., 1996-1967. Origin and significance of a Late Devensian meltwater channel system near Aughertree Fell, northern Cumbria. The Cumberland Geological Society Proceedings, vol. 6, part 2.
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