Trend Surface Mapping of Raised Shorelines

Abstract

THERE have been several attempts in recent months to illustrate and define the degree of tilting or deformation of the various raised shorelines in Scotland¹. Considerable use has been made of shoreline distance diagrams or graphs, whereby heights of the raised beaches in a particular area are projected on to a baseline, usually drawn in the supposed direction of maximum tilt of the series of shorelines as a whole. Each separate raised beach height is shown as a point on the diagram, the position of which is defined by altitude (usually given above O.D.) and projected distance along the baseline: the shorelines are depicted by lines or zones on the diagram, which in some cases are calculated best-fit regression lines to the series of points representing a given shoreline; in other cases they have been fitted by eye.