In humid regions, acidic soils called pedalfers occur.

Aluminium and iron are removed from the leached

layer and precipitated as oxide or hydrated oxide at greater depths, but usually within 0.5 m of the
surface.

This process of solution and precipitation is called podzolisation, and the soils are called podzols. The
original alkali elements (sodium, potassium, barium and calcium) go into solution and are eventually
carried away from the soil by drainage.

Only the upper layer of the soil in arid regions receives any moisture, and there is no seepage through it.
Organic material and carbon dioxide are also scarce and, as a consequence, carbonates are precipitated
within the soil. Alkaline soils of this type with carbonate layers are called pedocals. They are closed
chemical systems from which nothing is removed, unlike pedalfers, which are open systems.
The sea erodes by the pounding action of waves on the base of cliffs, and
also by compressing air present in crevices and so causing further
explosive impact within them. The cutting action of its currents as they
sweep across the foreshore is aided by the rubbing of pebbles dragged
along by the moving water. Limestone cliffs may also suffer some erosion
by solution of the rock in water

As a result of these agents, a notch is cut at the foot of cliffs

undermining them and causing them to collapse and retreat
from the sea. This leaves a wave-cut platform between the cliffs
and low-water mark. Where the cliffs are formed of poorly
consolidated rock and soils, erosion may proceed at rates that
average 1–2 m per year. This erosion usually takes the form of
sporadic and alarming inroads by cliff falls after storms.
Worldwide tem-perature dropped on a f few
occasions (the glacial periods) when ice
sheets advanced to cover wide areas of the
northern hemisphere, including Britain as far Large accumulations of ice are of two main
south as the Bristol Channel. Beyond the ice types: ice sheets, such as exist in Antarctica
front, periglacial effects comparable to and Greenland, and valley glaciers, such as
phenomena in present-day tundra can be are seen in present-day Switzerland.
recognised. During the interglacial periods
the climate was sometimes warmer than in
present-day Britain.
The flow of ice differs in mechanism and effect from that of
water. A river channel slopes persistently in one direction, apart
from where fast turbulent flow has produced pools and potholes

Having gouged into a weaker part of its floor to form a rock

basin, it tends to be deflected upwards over the next hard
outcrop, such as an igneous intrusion

The tributaries are left as hanging valleys from which

waterfalls now tumble into the glaciated valley.
It adheres to rock surfaces, and if a block can
be detached easily along minor fractures in
the rock, the moving ice plucks it from the
outcrop, especially if the outcrop is on the
downstream side of a rocky obstruction.

The rock fragments embedded in the base of

the glacier become cutting tools as it grinds
forwards. They make scratches on the solid
rock surface called glacial striae,
 At lower altitudes, a glacier is burdened increasingly
with moraine, yet, as the ice wastes, it is less able to
transport it. Most till is deposited from the bottom of
the ice sheet while it is still flowing. The movement
sometimes moulds the till into streamlined low hills
called drumlins

A small hill formed by an igneous intrusion, called a

plug hill, may be eroded by ice until a steep craggy face
is left to confront the ice flow;
A glacier deposits its remaining
load of moraine at the ice front.
If this is static, the coarse gravel
and boulders form an irregular
ridge called a terminal moraine.
Deposits from melt waters are
said to be fluvioglacial.
varved clay is often formed in lakes which were fed
seasonally by waters from melting glaciers.

In postglacial times there have been marked fluctuations of

mean sea level around Britain, partly because the melted ice
added to the volume of the oceans and partly because, in
glaciated regions where ice sheets were thick, there was a
response of the crust to the removal of the load of ice. Freed
of ice the plate started to rise in the denser viscous
asthenosphere to attain a new hydrostatic equilibrium. The
process is referred to as isostatic recovery.