Modern perspectives

Morphological approaches

Morphology and stratigraphy

Rock platforms

Glacier margins and sea level

Micro-faulting of bedded sands, California

Carselands

Biostratigraphy

Isolation basins

Storegga Slide tsunami

Patterns of land uplift

Climate change and sea level

From studies of the buried beaches and the later shorelines which overlie them, the morphological and stratigraphical approach was employed by Sissons in the Forth valley to identify evidence that the uplift of the land involved a degree of dislocation, at least partly along pre-existing fault lines. These “neotectonic” effects had not been so conclusively demonstrated before, and indeed the Forth valley study details some of the clearest evidence for neotectonic effects in shorelines in any formerly glaciated area. Importantly, Sissons (1972) was able to show that glacio-isostatically uplifted areas of the crust may actually comprise small segments separated by faults. This observation remains one of the unsung discoveries of aspects of land uplift in Scotland.