North Yorkshire Geodiversity Partnership

Ingleton Quarry, Precambrian
Malham Cove Carboniferous
West Burton Falls Carboniferous
Cleave Dyke Quarry, Jurassic
Geology

Geology

Geological Sites

Geological Sites

Rocks for us

Rocks For Us

Quaternary – Buried in Ice

drawing-13Taking a giant leap forward in time, to between 478,000 and 423,000 years ago (the Anglian glacial period), the whole area was buried in ice. Massive erosion, caused by the movement and melting of the ice, shaped much of the landscape; this sculpting continued during another, more recent (the Devensian), ice age (30,000 to 10,000 years ago) (13).

drawing-14Little evidence of the Anglian glaciation remains but there are extensive deposits from the Devensian, including the gravelly clays of the valley bottoms, which have been formed into trains of rounded hills called drumlins, especially in upper Wensleydale, Ribblesdale and the Craven lowlands. It also transported rocks from far away and when it melted left behind odd rocks called erratics often perched, as at Norber, on different rocks (14).

YDRP-Super-Hab-625

Map: The superficial geology of the Yorkshire Dales and Craven Lowlands

P005436_Norber_modified

Photo: Norber Erratics A perched erratic at Norber, a glacier deposited the Silurian sandstone on the Carboniferous Limestone surface which, through weathering and erosion, has been lowered. © BGS (NERC)

Alluvium
River Terrace Deposits
Peat
Glacial Sand and Gravel
Glacial Till

YDR-Drumlins-BGS

Map: YDRP Drumlins – The pattern of drumlins indicates that ice radiated out from the Dales Ice Centre, located in the Wild Boar Fell – Baugh Fell area west of Hawes.