Time, Process Southern England’s Landscapes - Southern England - page 20

FIG 18. Thaw lakes, the larger ones several kilometres long, on the Arctic coastal plain
near Barrow, Alaska. (Copyright Landform Slides - Ken Gardner)

THE LAST 30,000 YEARS TIMESCALE AND RECENT
MODIFICATION

The timescale shown in Figure 19 covers a period during which various episodes have
changed the landscapes of Southern England, creating our present-day world. These
episodes include the dramatic rise in sea level and landward movement of the coastline
caused by the warming of the climate following the last cold episode of the Ice Age.
They also include the progressive changing of the countryside by people, leading up to
the domination of some landscapes by man-made features.

FIG 19. Time divisions for the last 30,000 years (Late Pleistocene to Holocene).

Time Division Years Before Present