Drumlins, Drumlins everywhere! EarthCache
Drumlins, Drumlins everywhere!
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An Earthcache highlighting local topography that we all take for granted.
The above co-ordinates will take you to a quiet area of Slyne-with Hest on Ancliffe Lane which runs parallel to the busy A6
Looking around you is a scene of steep sided oval shaped hills called Drumlins.
These hills are scattered throughout this area and are a result of the last ice age. They occur in ‘fields’ and are in this area between 25m and 40m high and form long whale back shapes all generally going in one direction.The long axis of the drumlin is parallel to the movement of the glacial ice. The long gentle slope is known as the Lee Slope. The blunter end, known as the Stoss end, faced into the glacial movement.
Looking at the Drumlin in front of you the stoss end is where the 'telephone trees' are and the lee slope is to the left of the trees.
This local field stretches from the Kendal in the North to Garstang in the South.
The valley in front of you is Bottomdale which is not a normal valley carved by a stream or river cutting down through the landscape but a valley between two drumlins formed by ice and water. There is no stream in it, just the odd drainage ditch to take away surface water. This surface water often becomes trapped and forms ponds and marsh areas such as those near Hidden Hest Bank cache (GC1HPY9)
There are several theories on how they were formed but it is generally agreed that they were created by large amounts of water flowing under ice sheets depositing rocks, sand and gravel into large features not dissimilar to the marks left in the sand formed by rivers and seas. The direction in which they are formed gives evidence to which way the ice sheet was flowing prior to it retreating about 18000 years ago, when this part of northern England was buried under hundreds of feet of ice.
We pay little attention to them but they dominate our local environment controlling where we build our settlements, roads, railways and locally, the canal,as the Lancaster canal weaves its way through this area to Kendal between the drumlins.
The Drumlins are made up of stones and rocks from all over the North West of England. If you look at the walls in the local villages they are made up of these ice rounded rocks.
Where they are eroded by rivers, sea and tide their insides are revealed, as can be seen locally on the beach at Red Bank Farm and Wild Duck Hall.
To claim this Earthcache E-mail me the following:
1.Estimate the height of the obvious Drumlin with the 'telephone trees' on top in front of you.
2.Estimate the general direction that the ice was flowing to form these drumlins.
3.What is geological name for the rocks, sand and gravel that make up drumlins.
4.If you have a 1:25000 map of the area. What is the name of the obvious drumlin at the location? OR name me another local drumlin.
If you like please post a picture in your log of yourself with GPS or Your GPS at the co-ordinates with the drumlin behind.
I can be E-mailed by clicking on my name at the top of the page and entering my profile page.
* As usual don’t post your answers in your log.
Hope you enjoy your visit and Happy Caching!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ybbx nobhg lbh naq ernq lbhe znc