QN 140 (Oct 2016)
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
NUMBER 140 OCTOBER 2016 Quaternary Newsletter A publication of the Quaternary Research Association Quaternary Newsletter Vol. 140 October 2016 i QUATERNARY NEWSLETTER EDITOR: Dr A. Stone Geography, School of Environment, Education and Development, The University of Manchester, Arthur Lewis Building, Oxford Road, M13 9PL (e-mail: [email protected]) Instructions to authors Quaternary Newsletter is issued in February, June and October. Articles, reviews, notices of forthcoming meetings, news of personal and joint research projects etc. are invited and should be sent to the Editor. Closing dates for submission of copy (news, notices, reports etc.) for the relevant numbers are 1st January, 1st May and 1st September. These dates will be strictly adhered to in order to expedite publication. Articles must be submitted at least 6 weeks before these dates in order to be reviewed and revised in time for the next issue of QN, otherwise they may appear in a subsequent issue. Suggested word limits are as follows: obituaries (2000 words); articles (3000 words); reports on meetings (2000 words); reports on QRA grants (500 words); reviews (1000 words); letters to the Editor (500 words); abstracts (500 words). Authors submitting work as Word documents that include figures must send separate copies of the figures in .eps or .jpg format. In case of the latter, a minimum resolution of 300 dpi is required for accurate reproduction. Quaternary Research Fund and New Researchers Award Scheme reports should limit themselves to describing the results and significance of the actual research funded by QRA grants. The suggested format for these reports is as follows: (1) background and rationale (including a summary of how the grant facilitated the research), (2) results, (3) significance, (4) acknowledgments (if applicable). The reports should not (1) detail the aims and objectives of affiliated and larger projects (e.g. PhD topics), (2) outline future research and (3) cite lengthy reference lists. No more than one figure per report is necessary. Recipients of awards who have written reports are encouraged to submit full-length articles on related or larger research projects. NB: Detailed guidelines on the formatting of contributions are now available via the QRA webpage and from the editor, including an EndNote style file to help with the formatting of bibliographies for submissions to QN. © Quaternary Research Association, London 2016. Argraff/Printed by: Gwasg Ffrancon Press BETHESDA Gwynedd, North Wales Tel: 01248 601669 Fax: 01248 602634. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any storage system, without permission in writing from the publishers. COVER PHOTOGRAPH View of the Quiraing Landslide on the Ilse of Skye (see report by Bickerdike and Lovell this issue) (photo credit Arminel Lovell). ii Quaternary Newsletter Vol. 140 October 2016 EDITORIAL I hope you all had an enjoyable and productive summer. As the autumn nights draw in and I remain hopeful that the skies here in the NW of England fend off the drizzle, my main message is to report on the outcome of the consultation to all members about the future distribution model of the QN. I would like to thank you, on behalf of the Executive Committee, for your enthusiastic responses. We discussed these at length in May and September 2016, and I would like to extend thanks from the Executive Committee and all the QRA members to Bethan Davies who compiled the statistics and summary comments, from this exercise. In short, it is clear that the QN is highly valued by the membership, and that there is an unmistakable majority steer toward an electronic distribution model. Nonetheless, for those members who expressed a strong opinion that the hard copy was important to them, there remains the opportunity to continue to receive one. Before I summarise the response from the Executive Committee, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight some exciting benefits that result from a predominantly electronic distribution model. This will: (finally and easily) facilitate the inclusion of colour figures, something that a number of you have discussed with me as being long overdue; provide the opportunity to include longer articles (yes, you can expect me to continue to encourage you all to submit research articles to QN to foster continued engagement, communication and debate within our community) and allow the inclusion of hyperlinks to website and email addresses in the electronic edition (which are so very niftily interactive). It should also speed up dissemination of the QN to your eyes, that is if I can continue to persuade you all to observe submission deadlines in the madness of the end of the summer – this edition we’ve lost three lovely items to the sound of extended deadlines screeching past, and at one point, I feared for you all that I was going to be filling your QN pages with my holiday snaps. Here is summary of what the Executive Committee has agreed, which you can read in full via email, alongside the report compiled by the Publicity Officer: • QN will be routinely available as an electronic copy from 2017. • This October 2016 edition will be the last QN to be distributed to all members via post, and it will also be made available electronically. • Downloadable copies of QN will be made available in the Member’s Area of the website. They will be embargoed for one year, after which they will be made freely publically accessible. • Members will be notified of the availability of new issues via email (including a table of contents) and access will be either via a direct link within the email, or by logging in to the Member’s Area of the website. Quaternary Newsletter Vol. 140 October 2016 1 • A limited run of hard copies will still be produced for copyright libraries. • Those members still wishing to receive a hard copy are still able to do so, subject to a payment of a surcharge to cover printing and posting. • The funds saved from not printing and posting the QN to all members are not to be allocated for a specific purpose, but we envisage that these will be employed to increase the level of support available to members (particularly student members) through our award schemes as well as supporting outreach and geoconservation. I’d like to thank to Val Siviter, who has been working extremely hard to lay the groundwork to make the entire run of back issues of QN available for download in the near-future (allowing time for copyright matters to be dealt with before they appear on the website). I look forward to this new chapter of the QN, and hope you agree with the Executive Committee that this offers us an opportunity not only to improve the reach and quality of articles in QN but also to allow us to direct funds toward outreach, geoconservation and providing support to members of the QRA. This in turn, maintains the excellent quality of the reports contained within QN. I hope you enjoy the autumn edition. With warmest wishes Abi Stone September 9th 2016 2 Quaternary Newsletter Vol. 140 October 2016 NEWS 90TH BIRTHDAY LUNCH FOR BRIAN SISSONS On 23rd June 2016 (coincidentally Referendum Day) a lunch was held at the Braid Hills Hotel, Edinburgh to celebrate Brian Sissons’ 90th birthday. Attending were many of Brian’s former postgraduates and colleagues, their partners and 4 generations of Brian’s family. The postgraduates included Colin Ballantyne, Ali Dawson, Murray Gray, Tim Lawson, John Lowe, Rick Shakesby, David Smith, Donald Sutherland and Guruprasad Chattopadhyay who had come all the way from India to attend. Between 1960 and his early retirement in 1982 at the age of 56, Brian Sissons transformed our knowledge of the Quaternary geomorphology of Scotland (see Ballantyne and Gray, 1984) and supervised to completion over 30 PhD students. Lunch organizer, Murray Gray proposed the toast, paying tribute to Brian’s contributions and describing him as a "researcher of uncompromising integrity, remarkable originality and formidable intellect" (Gray and Ballantyne, 1984). Other tributes were paid by David Smith and Roger Kirby. Remarkably, after a gap of over 30 years in his publications, Brian Sissons, with help from John Lowe, has recently published 2 new papers on Glen Roy and vicinity (Sissons, 2015; 2016). Quaternary Newsletter Vol. 140 October 2016 3 Bibliography Ballantyne, C.K. and Gray, J.M. (1984). The Quaternary geomorphology of Scotland: the research contribution of J.B. Sissons. Quaternary Science Reviews, 3, 259-289. Gray, J.M. and Ballantyne, C.K. (1984). The Quaternary of Scotland: reviews in honour of J.B.Sissons. Quaternary Science Reviews, 3(4). Sissons, J.B. (2015). The varve-related ice-dammed lake events in Glen Roy and vicinity: a new interpretation. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, 2014.12.007 Sissons, J.B. (2016) The lateglacial lakes of Glens Roy, Spean and vicinity (Lochaber District) Scottish Highlands). Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, 2015.12.004 J. Murray Gray School of Geography Queen Mary, University of London Mile End Road London, E1 4NS [email protected] 4 Quaternary Newsletter Vol. 140 October 2016 ARTICLES GLACIOTECTONIC STRUCTURES IN THE WHITE PEAK, DERBYSHIRE, UK Peter F. Jones, Vanessa J. Banks, Matthew J. Pound and James B. Riding Abstract Glacial deposits preserved in limestone dissolution hollows in Derbyshire’s White Peak are attributed to the Anglian (MIS 12) glaciation. At Kenslow Top Pit near Middleton-by-Youlgreave, such deposits overlie clays, silts, sands and gravels of the Neogene Brassington Formation. A large slab of interbedded clay and gravelly sand present within the 8 m thick glacial sequence has yielded Miocene pollen from one of the clay layers.