An esker in the making and one that was made earlier...

It is not always easy to imagine what is going on under a glacier when an esker is forming. Here is an image which I had stored away but forgot to show you in class which illustrates deposition in a sub glacial stream very clearly ....

And here, in a sort of before and after, is another taken on top of the Keptie Hills esker in Arbroath...

Features of a corrie

I had a nice walk in the holiday to Corrie Fee which lies west of Glen Doll at the head of Glen Clova..... (see bird symbol for a National Nature Reserve)

Here are a couple of pics which I took. The first is from the lip looking towards the back of the corrie.....

The second is from the backwall of the corrie looking towards the lip.....
How many glacial, periglacial and fluvial processes have created this landscape?

After the Ice ....22 years on

Inspired by the series 'Britain from Above' which has been recently shown, the BBC are making available on their website some archived programmes featuring 'aerial journeys'.

One of these which you might like to watch as a resource to support your work on glaciation is from the 'Living Isles' series which was first broadcast in 1986 (seems just like yesterday!!) Click the image below to link .....

The episode is called 'After the Ice' and has the following synopsis ...."Britain was once covered in ice, with glaciers over a mile deep and ice caps as far south as London. With an eagle's eye view, this programme illustrates how ice shaped the landscape, and how forests evolved and ancient lakes remained after the ice retreated."

"I think I just flew past a pyramid peak"

I expect glacial landforms would be the last things on these guys' minds but.........


... if you look carefully, you should be able to spot glaciers, crevasses, corries, aretes, a couple of pyramid peaks, a U shaped valley or two complete with hanging valleys and truncated spurs, a ribbon lake and lots of periglacial features!

And you could practise your French at the same time! How many practitioners are there of this extreme form of skydiving in France?!

On the subject of glacial processes, here is an experiment which confirms what I was teaching today about pressure melting beneath the ice. You could try this one at home!

The Alps from the air...and from the ground

As promised in my posting from Valmorel last week, here are some of the photos which I took while skiing in the Alps last week. As you can see, the persistent high pressure brought day after day of blue skies and stunning views...

Valmorel is in the Tarentaise valley, lying just to the west of the Three Valleys skiing area and the more well known resorts of Val Thorens, Meribel and Courchevel. From the Col du Mottet above Valmorel you can look south east along the whole chain of the Haute Tarentaise..

And if you have a mind to, you can see some pretty good glacial and periglacial features. You shouldn't have too much difficulty in spotting the glacial trough, truncated spurs, hanging valleys and frost shattered peaks in the panorama above.
Turn around and look in the other direction and here's what you can see.....a corrie (or cirque as they would call it in that part of the world) with the lip clearly visible and aretes flanking the sides.

Valmorel's location means that when you get high enough, you look north east towards Mont Blanc..Sometimes, believe it or not, I just take photos because I like the view! So, no famous peaks or prominent glacial features in the next two...

Some nice interlocking spurs here on the left mindyou!

And finally, just to prove that I did get up in that microlight (see last posting), here are a few of the images I managed to snap .....

The last time I'd seen that building on the right, my feet had been on the ground and there had been huskies

'parked' outside it!

Enjoy the remainder of your holiday. I hope that you are managing to get some revision done and also enjoy the fine weather. The blog will get back to more serious matters next week!