Lateglacial
Loch Lomond Stadial
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 OI 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. The last ice sheet appears to have covered Shetland to a depth of many hundreds of metres and to have extended north and west to the shelf edge and to have been confluent with Scandinavian ice in the northern North Sea.
The main sub-divisions of the Late Pleistocene are based on the marine oxygen isotope record:
- OI Stage 5e - the last interglacial (see Fugla Ness)
- OI Stage 5d - a cold period
- OI Stage 5c - a long temperate period (see Sel Ayre)
- OI Stage 5b - a cold period
- OI Stage 5a - a shorter temperate period
- OI Stage 4 - a long cold period when an ice sheet from Shetland appears to have reached the shelf edge
- OI Stage 3 - a period of cold with brief warm periods, perhaps with smaller glaciers but moraines at the shelf edge have been ascribed to ice sheets during this interval
- OI Stage 2 - a long cold period when the last (Late Devensian) ice sheet covered all of Shetland and advanced some 75 km to east and west. Pack ice surrounded the ice sheet in winter but estimated July sea surface temperatures of 3
The last major period of glacial and periglacial activity on Shetland occurred during the Loch Lomond Stadial (11-10 kyr BP).
