Recessional moraines in nearshore waters, northern Scotland

Suites of relatively small, similar-sized and regularly spaced sediment ridges are commonly found fronting the termini of modern tidewater glaciers in fjords and marine embayments. These ice-flow transverse subaqueous moraine ridges, sometimes referred to as De Geer moraines, record the incremental retreat of the ice front grounding-line over time (De Geer 1889; Lindén & Möller 2005). The distribution and pattern of well-preserved recessional moraines in nearshore waters around Scotland provides insight into the pattern, timing and style of retreat of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet (Bradwell et al. 2008a, b; Stoker et al. 2009).