Scottish landform examples 45: Sgriob na Caillich: a landslide-sourced medial moraine on the Isle of Jura

ABSTRACT

Medial moraines deposited by former glaciers and ice sheets are rare in Scotland. The most prominent example is the Sgriob na Caillich moraine, which consists of two to four parallel belts of angular quartzite boulders that extend northwestwards for over 3.5?km from the SW flank of Beinn an Oir on the Isle of Jura. The boulder belts extend to within 300?m of the present coastline, where they are truncated by a low bluff and raised marine terrace. The source of the moraine coincides with bedrock gullies and cliffs that represent the scars of former rock-slope failure(s), indicating that the moraine debris was sourced by one or more rockfalls or rockslides onto the ice surface after Beinn an Oir had emerged from the thinning ice cover as a nunatak. Exposure dating of boulders on the moraine indicate that it formed at 16.6?±?0.8?ka, consistent with the timing of ice-sheet retreat in this sector. The alignment of the moraine indicates ice-margin retreat to the SE; as regional ice-sheet retreat across the adjacent offshore shelf was to the NE, this anomaly implies that a residual icefield became stranded on Jura during ice-sheet retreat.     

Geographic Study of the Natural Characteristics and the Economic Utilization of the Land Areas of the USSR

This paper by a leading Soviet theoretical physical geographer traces the historical development of the Soviet doctrine of geographic zonality and the role played by heat-moisture relationships in determining the structure, the dynamics and the development of natural geographic zones. The paper includes a table of geographic zonality and explains the periodic character of geographic zonality. Am American review article that provides useful background is: Jacek I. Romanowski, A Survey of Heat and Water Balance Research in the Soviet Union, University of Washington, Discussion Paper No. 41.     

Study and Classification of Agricultural Lands

The author discusses three classifications of agricultural lands based on (1) natural properties that affect productivity and serviceability, (2) on need for improvement and responsiveness to it, and (3) on actual use. All three classifications are considered essential for an agricultural evaluation of lands and for determining the relative effectiveness of use methods, actual or planned.     

Study,Utilization, and Transformation of Natural Resources in the Mountain Territories of the Southern USSR

The authors urge greater utilization of mountain territories in the south of the USSR for purposes of electric-power generation and recreation. Geographers are expected to make a significant contribution to the planning of development projects involving regulation of water resources, prevention of soil erosion, mudflows and avalanches, and other distinctive mountain phenomena.     

The Present State and Future Tasks of Physical Geography

Progress in physical geography as a separate research and teaching discipline is reviewed, and unfinished tasks for the next few years are outlined. The discipline continues to focus on the study and mapping of landscapes or geosystems as integrated areal units of the earth's physical-geographic environment. Emphasis is being placed on the use of quantitative techniques and systems theory as well as field observations, particularly at permanent field stations. New areas of application of landscape research are found to be opening up in physical planning, design engineering, evaluation and prediction.