Tertiary
Early Pleistocene
Middle Pleistocene
Ice
cover models
Deglaciation
Late
Glacial
The Clapperton (1997) curve, comparing Greenland ice core data with the possible glacier extent in the Scottish Highlands. During periods of prolonged cold, Ice Sheets form; shorter periods or less intense cold brings Mountain Ice Caps, Mountain Ice Fields and Corrie Glaciers.
Oxygen Isotope curve from deep ocean sediments, showing the approximate ages of the main Oxygen Isotope stages.
Late Pleistocene
The period since the last interglacial has seen many rapid and marked shifts in the climate of Scotland. Although the terrestrial stratigraphic record is still poorly understood, there is growing evidence for the existence of major ice masses during several intervals during the Late Pleistocene. Clapperton (1997) has used the Greenland ice core data as an indicator of ice extent in Scotland. His reconstruction suggests that the Cairngorms would have been covered by ice and snow for much of the last 100 kyr as a drop of only 3
°C in average July temperature would be sufficient to allow the formation of an ice cap in the Cairngorms.The main sub-divisions of the Late Pleistocene are based on the marine oxygen isotope record:
- OI Stage 5e - the last interglacial
- OI Stage 5d - a cold period
- OI Stage 5c - a long temperate period
- OI Stage 5b - a cold period
- OI Stage 5a - a shorter temperate period
- OI Stage 4 - a long cold period when ice sheets may have covered much of Scotland
- OI Stage 3 - a period of cold with brief warm periods, with smaller glaciers
- OI Stage 2 - a long cold period when the last (Late Devensian) ice sheet covered all of Scotland
- OI Stage 1 - the Holocene, the current interglacial
Deglaciation set in around 15 thousand years ago. The last major period of glacial and periglacial activity in the Cairngorms occurred during the Loch Lomond Stadial (11-10 kyr BP).
