Special Papers - Tom 25 (2009) ENG

QUATERNARY OF THE GULF OF GDAŃSK AND LOWER VISTULA REGIONS IN NORTHERN POLAND: SEDIMENTARY ENVIRONMENTS, STRATIGRAPHY AND PALAEOGEOGRAPHY

 

INTERNATIONAL FIELD SYMPOSIUM OF THE INQUA PERIBALTIC GROUP

September 14–19, 2008, Frombork, Poland

Scientific Editor: Leszek MARKS



PREFACE

Since its very beginning in the seventies of the 20th century, the Peribaltic Group of the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA) has created a major discussion forum for many Quaternary geologists, coming mostly but not exclusively from the countries around the Baltic Sea. The Peribaltic Group has been especially active since 1996 when, during this period, 16 field symposiums were organised, namely in Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Russia. Presentations and discussion, especially during the symposium field trips, created foundations for mutual cooperation in the Peribaltic Region and played also a significant role in selection of the main research tasks for Central European Quaternary geologists.
This volume contains a small part of the papers that were presented during the International Field Symposium of the INQUA Peribaltic Group “Quaternary of the Gulf of Gdańsk and Lower Vistula regions in northern Poland: sedimentary environments, stratigraphy and palaeogeography”, held at Frombork in Poland on September 14–19, 2008. A previous international symposium in this very area was held in 1979.
This symposium was complementary to the one that was organized by the Peribaltic Group at the Western Pomeranian seaside in September 1998, with a field trip from the Wolin Island as far east as the dune field at Łeba and the varved clays quarry at Lębork. Ten years later the scientific weight of the meeting focused on the Lower Vistula valley that is a key area for the European stratigraphy of the Vistulian (Weichselian) Glaciation. The field trip was also supplemented by a visit to the well known site of the glaciodislocated Elbląg clays of the Eemian sea at Kadyny and other impressive exposures along the western coast of the Gulf of Gdańsk.
This region is not only important for its geology but also for the Central European history. Therefore, the symposium participants could visit the largest brick castle in the world at Malbork, Old City in Gdańsk and take a boat cruise on the Ebląg-Ostróda Canal, a technical masterpiece from the 19th century.

Leszek MARKS


VERTICAL STRESS OF THE PLEISTOCENE CONTINENTAL GLACIERS AND ITS HYPOTHETICAL EVIDENCE IN PRESENT RELIEF OF NORTHERN EUROPE

 

Andrzej BER


Polish Geological Institute – National Research Institute, Rakowiecka 4, 00-975 Warsaw, Poland

p. 7–12

Abstract. The present morphology of northern Europe was undoubtedly shaped by neotectonics connected with a structural plan of the old basement and activated by particular Pleistocene ice sheets along parallel and meridional relaxed and fractured zones. These zones were mainly formed at the lithologic boundaries between structural units of different density. Parallel and meridional faults, activated during Pleistocene as a result of glacioisostasy (loading and unloading by advancing and retreating ice sheets) marked present surface as blocks or polygons in a whole glaciated territory, however, within the limit of the Last (Vistulian) Glaciation there are predominating elevations of the interlobate moraines named glaciotectonic insular heights (GIH).

Key words: vertical stress, glacioisostasy, morainic blocks, interlobate moraines, faults, glaciotectonic insular heights (GIH), present relief.

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GEOLOGY OF THE LOWER VISTULA REGION, NORTHERN POLAND


Dariusz GAŁĄZKA1, Leszek MARKS1


1 Polish Geological Institute – National Research Institute, Rakowiecka 4, 00-975 Warsaw, Poland; e-mails: Ten adres pocztowy jest chroniony przed spamowaniem. Aby go zobaczyć, konieczne jest włączenie w przeglądarce obsługi JavaScript., Ten adres pocztowy jest chroniony przed spamowaniem. Aby go zobaczyć, konieczne jest włączenie w przeglądarce obsługi JavaScript.

p. 13–20

Abstract. Depression in the Quaternary bedrock in the Lower Vistula Region was a main route for the Scandinavian ice sheets advancing into the Polish Lowland. At the end of the Elsterian Glaciation the receding ice sheet dammed the meltwaters in the Lower Vistula Valley and in its vicinity. The Holstein sea presumably occupied the Gulf of Gdańsk as indicated by brackish deposits of this age in the Kaliningrad District. During the Eemian Interglacial an extensive sea bay existed in the Lower Vistula Region. The Lower Vistula Region is a stratotype area for the Vistulian Glaciation (Weichselian), with several ice sheet advances, also before the Last Glacial Maximum.

Key words: ice sheet advances, Eemian sea, Vistulian, Quaternary, Lower Vistula Region, Poland.

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ON THE LOWER VISTULA VALLEY DEVELOPMENT IN THE LIGHT OF GEOMORPHOLOGICAL AND SEDIMENTOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS

 

Jarosław KORDOWSKI


Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Department of Lowland Geomorphology and Hydrology, Kopernika 19, 87-100 Toruń, Poland;
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p. 21–36

Abstract. The paper concerns the Lower Vistula River valley relief development from the Late Glacial until the present, based on the author’s geological and geomorphological mapping of this area. Relations between the older (originating prior to the last glacial advance) foundations of the valley and deposition modes within its edges during the last glaciation are described. Particular attention has been paid to traces of dead-ice blocks which had a huge impact upon the development of glaciofluvial and glacial terraces during the Late Glacial. Description of the Vistula River floodplain that reflects a morphological effect of an increasing human impact upon natural environment, its development, landforms and sediment properties, are presented in detail. Their analysis leads to the conclusion that the present-day floodplain resembles partly an initial stage of the anastomosing rivers.

Key words: relief evolution, dead-ice landforms, floodplain, Lower Vistula River valley, Late Glacial, Holocene.

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BIO- AND LITHOSTRATIGRAPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF EEMIAN FLUVIOLACUSTRINE SEDIMENTS AND TILLS FROM THE LOWER PEENE VALLEY (NE GERMANY)

 

Stefan MENG1, Andreas BÖRNER2, Jaqueline STRAHL3, Hans Ulrich THIEKE4


1 Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University, Institute of Geography and Geology, Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahnstr. 17a, 17487, Greifswald, Germany;
e-mail: Ten adres pocztowy jest chroniony przed spamowaniem. Aby go zobaczyć, konieczne jest włączenie w przeglądarce obsługi JavaScript.
2 State Authority of Environment, Nature Protection and Geology Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Goldberger Str. 12, 18273, Güstrow, Germany; e-mail: Ten adres pocztowy jest chroniony przed spamowaniem. Aby go zobaczyć, konieczne jest włączenie w przeglądarce obsługi JavaScript.
3 State Authority of Mining, Geology and Mineral Resources Brandenburg, Inselstr. 26, 03046 Cottbus, Germany; e-mail: Ten adres pocztowy jest chroniony przed spamowaniem. Aby go zobaczyć, konieczne jest włączenie w przeglądarce obsługi JavaScript.
4 Sella-Hasse-Str. 3, 12687, Berlin, Germany; e-mail: Ten adres pocztowy jest chroniony przed spamowaniem. Aby go zobaczyć, konieczne jest włączenie w przeglądarce obsługi JavaScript.

p. 37–48

Abstract. Corresponding biostratigraphical and lithological evidences permit to conclude that the drilled Eemian sediment was formed predominantly in fluviolacustrine facies in stagnant river lakes. The mollusc faunas investigated, therefore, is also of supra-regional significance and contains many mollusc species of the interglacial fluviolacustrine type. The stratigraphical classification of the sands as of the Eemian Interglacial age can be confirmed, finally, by the presence of Theodoxus fluviatilis. Moreover, the findings of Marstoniopsis scholzi were unknown so far from the Pleistocene in Germany. A constant pollen composition suggests a very short time of sedimentation during the Eemian namely from pollen zone 4 (cf. Erd, 1973) up to the beginning of pollen zone 5. The increasing rates of amphibole show an initial interglacial weathering impact. The surrounding morainic plateaus are covered only by a single Weichselian till (Mecklenburgian phase, qW3), which in the lower Peene valley directly overlays the Eemian fluvial deposits. A till of the younger Saalian (Warthian, qS2) underlays the fluviatile Eemian sands and the lowest till is classified as the lower Saalian glaciation (Drenthian, qS1). The Eemian fluvial sediments in the modern lower Peene valley argue for the existence of a pre-Weichselian river valley.

Key words: till, heavy minerals, pollen analysis, fluviolacustrine facies, fresh-water molluscs, Marstoniopsis scholzi, Theodoxus fluviatilis, Eemian Interglacial.

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SUBGLACIAL MELTWATER DISCHARGE WITHIN AND AROUND NORTH LATVIA UPLANDS DURING THE LAST GLACIATION

Dainis OZOLS


North Vidzeme Biosphere Reserve Administration, Rîgas iela 2, Rűjiena, Latvia, LV-4244; e-mail: Ten adres pocztowy jest chroniony przed spamowaniem. Aby go zobaczyć, konieczne jest włączenie w przeglądarce obsługi JavaScript.

p. 49–58

Abstract. Sediments and landforms of North Vidzeme Uplands are interpreted as a surge-type glacier formation, a development of which began with erosion and glacial lobe movement on an extensive subglacial water layer and ended with drainage through subglacial tunnel valleys and the prevailing accumulation processes. Transport of material and meltwater discharge during the most of the surge persisted from the lowlands to the interlobal areas (uplands) and the ice margin. It took place mainly due to meltwater currents that deposited clastic material within the crevasses and thawed openings on the interlobal risings – up to the englacial water table. High pressure of subglacial water resulted in high water tables within the crevasses on the ice divides. Within the North Vidzeme Uplands, flat tops of closely situated kames have quite similar heights that are explained by a previous uniform englacial meltwater table. Thus, the highest kames indicate the first ice sheet stranding on the ice divides and development of the crevasses by thawing. Subglacial meltwater discharge coincides mainly with routes of ice lobes and then follows the ice margin in the western direction. During the initial and the most active stage of the last surge, the meltwater was drained along valley-like depressions in the SE direction, and then probably, around the eastern part of the Central Vidzeme Upland to the Daugava River. During the final stages of the last glaciation when a kinematic wave over the buoyant part of the surging glacier approached the ice margin and meltwater could flow out freely from the ice sheet, the pressure of subglacial water decreased and the englacial water table fell. The drainage of ice lobes of the North Vidzeme and Vortsjarv was diverted to the eastern and the southern direction through the subglacial tunnel valleys of Rűja, Seda, Vaike Emajogi, Ohne and Pedele rivers and then through the Strenči subglacial basin to the submarginal tunnel valley of the Gauja River that drained the territory into the SW direction. A new kind of mesoform i.e. transverse valley-like depressions, is revealed. Lowlands are a testimony to different types of material transport beneath the ice sheet. Deposits of glaciofluvial currents show crosswise and parallel lamination and current ripples. Turbidite deposits have a coarse and graded structure. Deposits formed under floating earth and slurry flow conditions have a massive and platy structure and presence of rotated clasts of soft rocks and sediments. The material deformed during the very final stages of the surge by subglacial traction of plastic material includes deformed clasts of resistant rocks. Formation of clayey diamicton on top of the most of the sequencies is related to the decrease of hydraulic pressure of subglacial water, when the glacial traction mixed the underlying material and made a muddy mass. After deposition it was transformed into massive or platy clayey sediments, traditionally named a basal till.

Key words: glacial surge, valley-like depression, kame, esker, drumlin, diamicton, subglacial water, englacial water, surge cycle.

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LITORINA SEA SHORE DISPLACEMENT ON THE ISLAND OF SAAREMAA, ESTONIA

Leili SAARSE1, Jüri VASSILJEV1, Alar ROSENTAU2


1 Institute of Geology at Tallinn University of Technology, Ehitajate tee 5, 19086 Tallinn, Estonia; e-mails: Ten adres pocztowy jest chroniony przed spamowaniem. Aby go zobaczyć, konieczne jest włączenie w przeglądarce obsługi JavaScript., Ten adres pocztowy jest chroniony przed spamowaniem. Aby go zobaczyć, konieczne jest włączenie w przeglądarce obsługi JavaScript.
2 Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Vanemuise 46, 51014 Tartu, Estonia; e-mail: Ten adres pocztowy jest chroniony przed spamowaniem. Aby go zobaczyć, konieczne jest włączenie w przeglądarce obsługi JavaScript.

p. 59–66

Abstract. Sedimentological and magnetic susceptibility analyses, and radiocarbon datings of six Holocene sequences (Ohtja, Kihelkonna, Vedruka, Vesiku, Lümanda, Jáempa) were used to elucidate the Litorina Sea development on the Island of Saaremaa, Estonia. The Litorina Sea beach formations are located between 20.5 and 15.5 m above the present day sea level. Spatial distribution of the Litorina Sea shore displacement was reconstructed. The onset of the Litorina Sea transgression in the study area is dated to 8200 cal yr BP. The measure of a single transgression was about 4.5–5.0 m.

Key words: Litorina Sea, 14C dates, Saaremaa Island, Baltic Sea, Estonia, Holocene.

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