Active ice-sheet deglaciation and ice-dammed lakes in the northern Cairngorm Mountains, Scotland

Abstract

Mapping of ice-marginal and glaciolacustrine deposits in the northern Cairngorm Mountains allows the nature of deglaciation following the Last Glacial Maximum (c.18 000 BP) to be reinterpreted. Two ice-dammed lakes were ponded between the Glenmore lobe of the Scottish ice sheet and local glaciers draining northwards from the Cairngorm Mountains. Delta progradation from the southern end of each lake reflects dominant meltwater sources and glacio-hydrological gradients. Sediment facies representing subaqueous mass-flow deposits, lakebottom rhythmites, lower and upper foresets and topsets are associated with prograding delta fronts. Moraines show that the lakes were ice dammed at both ends, evidence that active glaciers existed in the Cairngorm Mountains while ice was retreating from Strath Spey, and that deglaciation was punctuated by readvances of the ice margin. These results indicate that an ice-stagnation model of deglaciation is invalid for most of the duration of ice wastage, but instead support an active-retreat hypothesis with multiple, climatically forced readvances.