Significance of the British Quaternary Strand-line Oscillations

Abstract

It is proposed in this communication to describe the results obtained, and methods employed, in an investigation of the British strand-line oscillations and to discuss related episodes on the Continent. The original object was to determine the nature of the movements and, if possible, to discover their time relations, but the unexpected correlations that emerged rendered it necessary to extend the scope of the investigation. The data available include the pre-Glacial, 100-ft. and 25-ft. raised beaches together with the knowledge that the land stood high above the prevailing sea-level and was glaciated between the first and second beaches mentioned, and that there was a re-advance of the ice between the second and third. The most interesting feature of the oscillations is that they constitute a complete cycle; for the sea which left the pre-Glacial beach at the beginning of Quaternary time, practically returned to it at the close. This cyclic nature of the movements suggested that if the first, or determining, movement could correctly be assumed, it should be possible to depict the changing relations of sea and land in a simple bi-axial diagram; the movements being given absolute value by reference to the earth’s centre.