Natural History of Upper Teesdale

4 - Geomorphology and Quarternary glacial legacy

Details of the North Pennines landscape relate specifically to the underlying bedrock, where shifts in rock and erosion has resulted in stepped hillslope profiles and tableland features. Glaciation is manifest in the landscapes of Teesdale and the North Pennines in the form of features eroded by ice or by its meltwater, andby the ‘glacigenic drift’ where surface materials include sands and gravels of meltwater deposits and tills that are poorly sorted sediments plastered on the landscape by glacier ice.

Whereas there is much of interest in the rocks, fossils and minerals themselves, an understanding of this geological diversity is also vital to fully appreciating the ecological, social and economic character of this beautiful Pennine valley.