Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
An interesting argument in favour of the existence of the Icelandic bridge during the
maximum glaciation of Scandinavia and Great Britain is furnished by the difference in the
direction of the ice movement in those countries. In the latter the thickness of the ice, and
consequently the amount of precipitation, is said to have been greatest in the west; the ice,
for example, which carried the shap boulders from Westmorland to the Yorkshire coast,
similarly crossed the Pennine watershed from west to east. In Scandinavia, on the other
hand, the movement was in the opposite direction, from Sweden towards the west; the
precipitation must therefore have been greater in the Baltic region than on the Norwegian
coast. The explanation of these facts may be that the western part of the British Isles was at
that time in close contiguity with the Atlantic, and under the influence of some of its
cyclonic disturbances. The moisture bearing cyclones, on the other hand, were prevented
from reaching the Norwegian coast by the Icelandic barrier and the ice-fields to the north
consequently resulting, but a path towards the Baltic lay open to them across northern
France where, the rainfall was then excessive. How this may have taken place is shown
hypothetically (Harmer
1925
).
Fig. 4.5 Hypothetical geography and pressure distribution of the Pleistocene epoch as presented
by Harmer. Key: broken shading land; continuous shading sea formerly proposed land (Harmer
1925
)
