This paper reviews the changing environments, developing landforms and terrestrial stratigraphy during the Early and Middle Pleistocene stages in Scotland. Cold stages after 2.7 Ma brought mountain ice caps and lowland permafrost, but larger ice sheets were short-lived. The late Early and Middle Pleistocene sedimentary record found offshore indicates more than 10 advances of ice sheets from Scotland into the North Sea but only 4–5 advances have been identified from the terrestrial stratigraphy. Two primary modes of glaciation, mountain ice cap and full ice sheet modes, can be recognised. Different zones of glacial erosion in Scotland reflect this bimodal glaciation and the spatially and temporally variable dynamics at glacier beds. Depths of glacial erosion vary from almost zero in Buchan to hundreds of metres in glens in the western Highlands and in basins both onshore and offshore. The presence of tors and blockfields indicates repeated development of patches of cold-based, non-erosive glacier ice on summits and plateaux. In lowlands, chemical weathering continued to operate during interglacials, but gruss-type saprolites are mainly of Pliocene to Early Pleistocene age. The Middle Pleistocene terrestrial stratigraphic record in Scotland, whilst fragmentary and poorly dated, provides important and accessible evidence of changing glacial, periglacial and interglacial environments over at least three stadial–interstadial–interglacial cycles. The distributions of blockfields and tors and the erratic contents of glacial sediments indicate that the configuration, thermal regime and pattern of ice flow during MIS 6 were broadly comparable to those of the last ice sheet. Improved control over the ages of Early and Middle Pleistocene sediments, soils and saprolites and on long-term rates of weathering and erosion, combined with information on palaeoenvironments, ice extent and sea level, will in future allow development and testing of new models of Pleistocene tectonics, isostasy, sea-level change and ice sheet dynamics in Scotland.

中文翻译：

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苏格兰早、中更新世环境、地貌和沉积物

本文回顾了苏格兰早更新世和中更新世阶段不断变化的环境、发育的地貌和陆地地层。2.7 Ma 之后的寒冷阶段带来了山地冰盖和低地永久冻土，但较大的冰盖是短暂的。近海发现的早更新世晚期和中更新世沉积记录表明，从苏格兰到北海的冰盖有 10 多个进展，但从陆地地层学中仅发现 4-5 个进展。可以识别两种主要的冰川模式，山冰盖模式和完整的冰盖模式。苏格兰不同的冰川侵蚀区域反映了这种双峰冰川作用以及冰川床的空间和时间变化动态。冰川侵蚀的深度从 Buchan 的几乎为零到西部高地的峡谷和陆上和海上盆地的数百米不等。Tors 和 blockfields 的存在表明在山顶和高原上反复出现了以寒冷为基础的、非侵蚀性的冰川冰块。在低地，化学风化在间冰期继续进行，但格鲁斯型腐泥岩主要是上新世至早更新世时代。苏格兰的中更新世陆地地层记录虽然零碎且年代久远，但提供了重要且易于获得的证据，证明了至少三个体育场-间冰期-间冰期循环中的冰川、冰缘和间冰期环境的变化。块体和tors的分布以及冰川沉积物的不稳定含量表明构造，MIS 6 期间的热状态和冰流模式与最后一个冰盖的热状态和模式大致相当。改进对早和中更新世沉积物、土壤和腐泥土的年龄以及对风化和侵蚀的长期速率的控制，结合古环境、冰层和海平面的信息，将来将允许开发和测试更新世的新模型苏格兰的构造、平衡、海平面变化和冰盖动力学。