THE LOCATION AND ORIGIN OF GLACIAL MELTWATER PHENOMENA IN THE EASTERN CHEVIOT HILLS

Summary Meltwater channels are sparse where ice movement was parallel with the valleys but abundant where it was across the trend of the ridges and valleys. Most channels were formed subglacially as englacial meltwater streams became superimposed. The location of complex systems of interconnected eskers, kames and kame terraces is related chiefly to (a) relief features, especially lowland basins, which impeded the flow of the wasting ice sheet and ultimately rendered large portions of it stagnant; (b) areas in which the abundance of till suggests a former ice sheet heavily charged with basal and englacial debris. Where factors (a) and (b) occurred together, as on the northern and eastern sides of the Cheviot Hills, upward curving shear planes induced by impeded flow may have carried large quantities of englacial debris from basal layers of the ice sheet up into the zone where systems of englacial and subglacial streams ultimately reworked the detritus into bedded sands and gravels.