Ramón Blanco Chao

Pleistocene glaciation in Spain

This chapter discusses the Pleistocene glaciation in Spain. After a century and a half of research on Pleistocene glaciation in Spain, it is still difficult to make generalizations regarding the maximum glacial limits and the age of the individual ice advances, because many glaciated areas have still to be analyzed in detail. The glaciation was controlled not only by the preexisting landforms and the altitude, but also by the available humidity, related to their distance from the sea. This explains the progressive rise of the Equilibrium Line Altitude (ELA) towards the east and south, as well as the extensive glaciation in the northwestern mountains. From the avaliable data it can be concluded that, although the Wurmian glaciation seems to have been the dominant one, there is some evidence of previous glacial cycles.

Holocene evolution on Galician coast (NW Spain): an example of paraglacial dynamics

Abstract The recent evolution and the present coastal dynamic in middle Atlantic latitudes, as the coast of Galicia, can be considered in a paraglacial context. The fossilization of Eemian coastal landforms by deposits developed under cold conditions, followed by a paraglacial environment during the Holocene transgression. The characteristics of the different types of deposits and the rising sea-level curve controlled the evolution of the coastline, showing the co-existence of bluff-retreat and continental sedimentation.