Cosmogenic (10Be) surface-exposure ages from the Burtness Comb rock avalanche, Lake District, northwest England

Abstract

The age of the lower component of the Burtness Comb rock avalanche debris tongue, Lake District, northwest England, has been determined by in situ produced terrestrial cosmogenic (¹⁰Be) surface-exposure dating of quartz veins from three boulders. Uncertainty-weighted mean ages of 17.37 ± 0.94 ka (determined using the Loch Lomond calibration dataset) and 16.08 ± 1.25 ka (determined using the CRONUS-Earth default calibration dataset) indicate that this component of the rock avalanche occurred during deglaciation following the local Last Glacial Maximum. The surface morphology displayed by the debris indicates it likely accumulated on glacier-free terrain, suggesting that the Burtness Comb cirque glacier had decoupled from the Buttermere valley glacier at the time of debris emplacement. The debris may have travelled across the surface of a waning glacier in the upper part of the cirque. Although the upper component of the rock avalanche is as yet undated its position and configuration indicate it to be younger than the lower component and sourced from a different part of the comb headwall. The rock avalanche is only the third of 84 rock slope failures recognised in the Lake District and adjacent Howgill Fells to have been dated using ¹⁰Be. Whilst the rock avalanche is regarded as a paraglacial landform, additional ages on other members of this population are required in order to establish their temporal pattern and to propose the most probable underlying cause(s) of failure.