Pingos

Camross pingos Legacy of the ice age

By Michael Doyle 1996

"Pingo" is itself an Eskimo word and is described as an arctic mound or hill, shaped like an volcano,

consisting of an outer layer of soil covering an core of solid ice. These features are common in the arctic regions of the world today.

What we have here in Camross is the remains of what once fitted that description. Of coarse the ice core long

being melted, the central mound has subsided and we are left with a collapsed centre surrounded by a raised rim

of land forming a circle or partial circle.

These land structures were - fossil pingoes- were first identified in the Camross area by Professor Frank Mitchell of Trinity Collage Dublin.

The assumption was, that if pingos were quite common in arctic regions at present, the probability was they must have occurred in parts of

Ireland when we had similar climatic conditions to the arctic today.

The pings were first identified from the air, and Professor Mitchell and his surveying party spent the summer months of 1971 in Camross

analysing and documenting them. He published the results of his findings in November 1973 in a paper from the Royal Irish Academy entitled

"Fossil Pingos in Camross townsland, Co Wexford" over 200 structures believed to be fossil pingos are recorded

in the study area.

Camross is located at an altitude of approximately 225 feet (70 meters) the local rocks are slates and sandstone's of the Ordovician age containing

contemporary volcanic rocks. the area was strongly effected by the Caledonian folding movement. Denudation has produced at about 200 ft (60 meters)

on the sedimentary rocks above which rise the more resident volcanic rocks.

In the north of the towns land a boss of quartzporphy rises to 600 ft (180 meters) to form Camross hill. The area was glaciated in the last

phase of the Munsterian cold Stage when ice coming from the midlands passed over the area in the south-easterly direction. The area was not

glaciated in the Midlandian Cold stage, although ice of that age advancing westwards from the basin of the Irish sea only halted At Tomcoole three miles

south-east of Camross.

In a limited area North east of Camross, fossil pingos were particularly prominent. here it is assumed that a pingo is formed when water which has been forced upwards by freezing pressure,

itself freezes in a lens like formation the surface of the ground arching the surface layers up over itself and forming and earth covered ice-cored mound.

The full article can be found in "The Journal of the Taghmon Historical Society" No 1 1996 editor Tom Williams