Recent Ground Pattern Phenomena in the Rhinog Mountains, North Wales

Abstract

Striped ground, terraced slopes, gliding blocks and stone banked lobes, the latter formed from material of an old wall constructed prior to 1815, are described from between 670 and 750 m altitude in the Rhinog Mountains, North Wales. It is suggested that the formation of these features may be attributed to gelifluction and cryoturbation processes in the “Little Ice Age” which occurred between about 1550 and 1750 A.D. and that other patterned ground features of similar scale on British mountains may owe their origin to the same period.