Till sedimentology and stratigraphy on the Dingle Peninsula, SW Ireland: implications for Late Quaternary regional ice flow patterns

Investigation of Late Quaternary glacigenic sediments exposed in coastal sections on the Dingle Peninsula, southwest Ireland shows that during the last glaciation, an advance of local ice occurred across the western and northern coasts of the peninsula and deposited a series of subglacial tills. These tills were formed largely by the subglacial reworking of underlying parent material. Sedimentological contrasts between them reflect variations in the nature of the parent material from which the tills were derived, as well as variations in the magnitude of strain during till formation. The local ice reworked pre-existing glacial deposits associated with an earlier advance of regional ice from the north. Evidence for this earlier advance of regional ice is provided by erratics of Galway Granite contained within the tills at some sites. No in-situ deposits associated with the granite-carrying ice were observed on the peninsula. Clast macrofabric and provenance data indicate that all of the tills recorded are the product of the radial flow of local ice coastwards from the peninsula.