Download 200 million years have elapsed since the youngest rocks were

The Missing Years and
the Impact of the Ice Age
This photograph of modern ice sheets and glaciers in northern Canada gives an excellent impression of how the Lake District would have looked towards the end of the
last glacial period.
Image courtesy of Jane Francis, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds
200 million years have elapsed since the youngest rocks were deposited in
the Lake District. Quite likely seas have sometimes covered the region in that
time, but any rocks that might have formed have been removed by erosion.
For the past 65 million years, the geological history of the Lake District has
been dominated by uplift and erosion. This has gradually led to the formation
of the mountains we see today. Erosion removed the layers of limestone and
sandstone that once covered them, and excavated the pattern of valleys that
drain the area today. These radiate out from the heart of the Lake District
where the uplift was centred. The Ice Age of the past three million years played
a major part in shaping these valleys and creating the landforms we see today.
Over the last 2.6 million
years the Earth has been
experiencing an Ice Age with
fluctuations between hot and
cold conditions affecting our
latitudes. During cold periods,
successive ice sheets and
glaciers covered the Lake
District; they spread outwards
following the radial drainage
pattern, and extended to the
south. The glaciers of the
most recent glaciation (called
the Late Devensian), between
26,000 and 10,000 years ago,
were responsible for finally
shaping the landscape we
see today. Ice streams and
glaciers flowed outward from
the central fells, creating deep
lake basins such as Coniston
Water, and spread south as far
as the Cheshire plain. Deposits
of sands and gravels built up
beneath the ice sheets and at
the edge of the ice, and are a
widely used local resource of
aggregate materials today.
Outcrop of Borrowdale Volcanic Group rocks near
the Coniston Copper Mine showing a polished
surface with horizontal grooves and scratches
carved by rocks frozen into the base of a glacier as
it flowed down the valley.
Image courtesy of Allan Smith
Funded by:
Ruskin Rocks Team and School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds
A collaborative project led by the University of Leeds
Further information at www.ruskinrocks.org.uk