2. Lake District Flashcards
Describe the location of the Lake District:
Cumbria, NW England
The Lake District covers 2,992 km2
Has a population of 42,000
It has been a National Park since 1951
Describe the past glaciations in the Lake District:
- Many glaciations in the lake district over the past 400,000 years
- Present landscape is a result of glaciation during the Pleistocene period during the past million years: 20 glaciations have occurred during this time.
- However some depositional landforms are as a result of the Loch Lomond Stadial which took place 12,800-11,500 years ago and was a brief episode of glacial re-advance in Britain.
Describe how ice shaped the landscape of the Lake District:
- LD was a mountain massif broken by river valleys radiating outwards from the centre: ice ages mean ice flowed out from the centre following river valleys
What is the most important factor that has shaped the LD?
The geology
What are the three main bands of rock found in the LD?
- Skiddaw group
- Borrowdale volcanic group
- Windermere group
Describe the Skiddaw group:
- Oldest in the Lake District
- Formed as black muds and sands having settled on the sea bed about 500 million years ago
- Since been folded by tectonics
- Found in the North
- Form smooth mountains with steep gorges
- Skiddaw has a slater appearance.
Describe the Borrowdale volcanic group:
- Found in central Lake District
- Consist of hard lava and ash formed 450 million years ago
- Withstood erosion
- Highest mountains such as Scafell and Helvellyn.
Describe the Windermere group:
- Sedimentary mudstones, sandstones, siltstones and some limestone
- Found in the gentler Southern part of Lake District (Morecambe Bay)
- Formed in the sea 420 million years ago
- Folded, faulted and eroded down to present levels
What other rock types are found in LD?
Granite intruded 400 million years ago deep below a Lake District, outcrops can be found at Ennerdale and Eskdale.
Carboniferous limestone formed by the shells and skeletons of small marine animals about 320 million years, when the Lake District was covered in a tropical sea. This can be seen at Whitbarrow and Yewbarrow in the South.
Evidence of aretes + pyramidal peak:
Helvellyn Range is an 11km long ridge over 600m high with numerous glacial erosional landforms. The summit of Helvellyn is a pyramidal peak (not sharply pointed and lacks more than two corries)
Striding Edge separates Red Tarn and Nethermost Cove
Evidence of corries
Red Tarn - ice from red tarn flowed into the Vally of Glenridding, forming a valley glacier large enough to form a small glacial trough which fed into a much larger glacial trough occupied today by Ullswater, from here, ice was then channeled out of central Lake District in a North-Easterly direction.
Evidence of a ribbon lake:
Ullswater
Very irregular as made of several different resistant bands of volcanic rock
Evidence of a roche moutonee
Norfolk Island, in the middle of Ullswater
Evidence of drumlin fields:
- Extensive drumlin fields just south of Kendal that lie on carboniferous rocks
Range from 50m to 125m high - Have broad rounded tops and are frequently steep-sided
- Some are rock-cored while others consist of till
- Orientation of the drumlins is NW/SW
- Elongation ratio of 3:1
Evidence of lateral moraine:
On the right bank of the Langstrath Valley - it has retained its distinctive appearance partly due to a lack of mass movement processes on the valley side
