Strange landscape patterns seen on Google Earth

[Pitlamp]

This is a screenshot of high moorland about half a mile to the south east from the summit of Hartside Pass (the high A686 road linking Penrith to Alston in the northern Pennines). Anyone know what all the pale rectangles are? They look to be about 30 m x 12 m.

 

[georgenorth]

It’s mown heather patches I believe:

https://www.moorsforthefuture.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0025/80647/Heather-cutting-Factsheet.pdf

 

[paul]

Swailing probably see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_burn ?

 

[georgenorth]

It’s definitely mown rather than burnt - much too regular for burning, and you can see the tractor tracks connecting the patches!

 

[flakey]

Yeah, definitely mown heather. Done in lieu of burning to promote young heather shoots for grouse to feed on, before they’re all ritually shot.

 

[JAA]

Yep. Mown. Natural England dish out fines if burns are bigger than a certain size on deep peat.
With my fire and gamekeeper head on it’s a load of NE dreamed up horsesh1t that just increases fire loading and then ends up with the very peat damage they claim to be preventing.
But you didn’t ask that

 

[JAA]

Yep. Mown. Natural England dish out fines if burns are bigger than a certain size on deep peat.
With my fire and gamekeeper head on it’s a load of NE dreamed up horsesh1t that just increases fire loading and then ends up with the very peat damage they claim to be preventing. Heather seed has “evolved” to better germinate after exposure to high temperature for short periods (much the same as some seeds need to be cold then warm to germinate but I’m preaching to the choir there)
But you didn’t ask that

 

[Pitlamp]

Excellent; thanks folks. Could this lead to sinking streams being still hazy by the time they return to daylight?

This is nothing to do with the Hartside Pass area, incidentally.
I just picked that particular screen shot because it's a very good example. I ask because several miles away there's a resurging stream which is suspiciously hazy and it has a patch of heather moorland up the fell from it, with similar patterns in the satellite view. I'm just interested in whether this helps narrow down where the resurgence is fed from.

 

[2xw]

Excellent; thanks folks. Could this lead to sinking streams being still hazy by the time they return to daylight?

This is nothing to do with the Hartside Pass area, incidentally.
I just picked that particular screen shot because it's a very good example. I ask because several miles away there's a resurging stream which is suspiciously hazy and it has a patch of heather moorland up the fell from it, with similar patterns in the satellite view. I'm just interested in whether this helps narrow down where the resurgence is fed from.

No, there is very little evidence that either mowing or burning make a difference to dissolved or particulate organic carbon in peat streams, not to an extent that you can make a guess as to where the resurgence is fed from - the brownness is more to do with how dry the peat was prior to rain, in my (informed) opinion, and additionally soil temperature and O2 getting into the soil. Long term it has been increasing.

The government has banned burning under specific circumstances because the body of evidence generally suggests it creates undisireable effects downstream. Mowing has the dual advantage of managing fuel load from rank heather as well as increasing the surface moisture of the peat - which incidentally is quite good for grouse as it increases crane fly abundance which young grouse need as an essential source of magnesium. Gamekeepers should be doing more mowing ideally, but on balance if the public wants it maybe they should pay the increased costs.

 

[Pitlamp]

Thanks 2xw, that's really useful to know.

The water discolouration is more of a grey haze; it's definitely not the usual peat staining. I'm very familiar with the effects of rainfall amount / distribution, surface temperatures, the state of percolation stores in limestone etc on the degree of peat staining in streams (which I watch daily, as it greatly influences our underground activities).

This is something different. The main beck that this hazy resurgence feeds into was running clear, so the source of the water isn't just what's sinking further upstream. Any ideas what else might be causing the grey haze?

 

[hannahb]

Unsure if helpful but sometimes outflows from sewage works have a grey haze / milky appearance. Also outflows from quarries can look like this. In a pond it apparently indicates a bacterial load.

 

[Pitlamp]

Thanks Hannah. Yes, that’s the sort of colour / haziness but I don’t there’s any sewage treatment facility or quarrying in the area. Some sort of agricultural process is more likely, I think.

 

[spelfish]

Someone using slurry in an uncontrolled way might produce this sort of haziness - we've seen it locally when a contractor discharged a lot of slurry into the river which is (theoretically) highly protected. In fairness, when we spoke to the farmer he was genuinely mortified and now uses a different contractor.

 

[Mark]

Paper pulp spreading had a similar effect in the Peak District

 

[alanw]

Paper pulp spreading had a similar effect in the Peak District

Slightly off topic, but wasn't there many years ago a huge pile of paper pulp at the side of the A65 somewhere between Ingleton and Settle?

 

[Emsy]

Yes, I remember that. Think it was between Settle & Long Preston.