The Pleistocene Geology of the South Birmingham Area

Abstract

The Older Drift of South Birmingham has been shown to include three levels of lacustrine sediments. Their disposition and lithological variation is discussed. They are interpreted as due to the advance of the Riss (Saale) glacier which, impounding glacial Lake Harrison between Leicester and Bredon Hill, produced also a branch at the same height, the Tame valley arm (Shotton 1953). The lowest lake of South Birmingham is part of this arm but the two higher levels are due to smaller stretches of water impounded in a proto-Rea valley by the ice as it advanced southward against the high land in front of the Clent-Lickey Hills. Eventually this ice completely overrode its own lacustrine deposits.