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XIX.—The Physiography of the Moray Firth Coast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2012

Extract

Physiographic investigation was undertaken in the coastal belt of the Moray Firth between Golspie and Port Gordon in the hope that it would serve a double purpose. So far as was known no detailed morphological study of any large section of the British coasts had been made, and it appeared that such an investigation upon a varied coast-line would increase our knowledge of marine processes and the work they accomplish. Furthermore, since the area selected includes some of the finest and most complex examples of raised beach at several levels, it was possible by careful attention to heights, absolute and relative, to contribute evidence that may serve in future geological studies of a broader character. The exceptional wealth and variety of features of marine abrasion and deposit in these 250 miles of coast is due largely to the fact that they have been produced on a rising land margin, and so have been preserved.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1924

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References

page 377 note * The field work, which was carried out in the summers of 1912 and 1913, included the interpolation of topographic detail on the “six-inch” O.S. maps of the littoral zone up to and sometimes above the 100-ft. contour, the examination of the natural vegetation on wave- and wind-built land, and the measurement of tidal currents at various depths in a typical strait—the entrance to Inverness Firth. The sea-bottom in critical sections was studied on the large scale MS. charts at the Admiralty, and contours interpolated from these at 1-fathom intervals. I am indebted to Dr John Horne and Mr Lionel Hinxman for advice generously given at the outset of the work; and I wish to acknowledge courtesies facilitating the investigation extended by the late Director-General, Ordnance Survey, the late Hydrographer, and the late Director of the Geological Survey in Scotland.

page 377 note † In well-borings at Inverness, solid rock was not reached at this depth. Cf. Reid, D. J. in Trans. Inverness Field Glub, vol. v (18951899), p. 400.Google Scholar

page 378 note * Altitudes mentioned refer throughout to the Ordnance datum—mean sea-level at Liverpool.

page 380 note * The original maps, drawings, etc., have been deposited in the School of Geography at Oxford. Photographs of these, on a reduced scale, have been placed in the collections of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. They include several series: (a) The “six-inch” relief maps and isobathic charts mentioned above; (b) “structure maps” of the various wave-built areas in which the shingle-bars are plotted; (c) vegetation maps of many of the coastal flats; (d) maps illustrating recent changes in shoreline as revealed by two hydrographic surveys at about seventy years' interval; (e) diagrams, profiles, and sketches; (f) photographs, the location of which is numbered serially on the “six-inch” maps.

page 383 note * For a description of better examples of these, see p. 400 and fig. 9.

page 387 note * Cf. p. 400.

page 388 note * The Balintore gap (G) may well have carried a river which followed the line of the inner Dornoch Firth at 700 ft. or more, and passed between Struie Hill and Ben Clach an Fheadain and through the Lairgs of Tain.

page 391 note * Geol. Survey Mem., Sheet 83, p. 88.

page 391 note † Ibid., p. 76.

page 394 note * Geol. Survey Mem., Sheet 83, p. 85.

page 394 note † Supra, p. 377 (footnote).

page 394 note ‡ Geol. Survey Mem., Sheet 83, p. 6.

page 395 note * Scot. Geogr. Mag., vol. xxx, pp. 21–35, January 1914.

page 400 note * Cf. The Lossiemouth bare, infra, p. 404.

page 400 note † See p. 401 (footnote).

page 401 note * George Bain, “The Culbin Sands.” Pamphlet published by the Nairnshire Telegraph.