The lower reaches of the Nemunas River at the end of the Last (Weichselian) Glacial and beginning of the Holocene

Authors

  • Albertas Bitinas Klaipėda University, H. Manto Str. 84, LT-92294 Klaipėda
  • Olga Druzhinina I. Kant Baltic Federal University, A. Nevsky Str. 14, 236038 Kaliningrad Vyshtynets Museum of Nature and History, Krasnoles`e, 238023 Kaliningrad Oblast
  • Aldona Damušytė Geological Survey of Lithuania, Konarskio Str. 35, LT-2600 Vilnius
  • Tatiana Napreenko-Dorokhova The Atlantic Branch of the P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Prospekt Mira 1, 236022 Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad Oblast
  • Rimantė Guobytė Geological Survey of Lithuania, Konarskio Str. 35, LT-2600 Vilnius
  • Jonas Mažeika State Research Institute Nature Research Centre, Akademijos Str. 2, LT-08412 Vilnius

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7306/gq.1337

Keywords:

Baltic Sea, Nemunas Delta, Ancylus Lake, palaeogeography, hydrography, archaeology

Abstract

The Russian–Lithuanian cross-border area around the Nemunas and Šešupė rivers confluence is a key area for solving palaeogeographic issues important for this region: when the Nemunas Delta started to form, why the essential changes of hydrographic network occurred, and so on. The results of conventional radiocarbon (14C) dating and pollen analysis in the present dry valley between the Šešupė River and the Įrutis River as well as the results of former studies at the Riadino-5 archaeological site suggest that the essential changes in the Nemunas River hydrographic system occurred before 9.5 ka, most likely in Preboreal time, when the Nemunas River cut through the Vilkiškė Marginal Ridge and started to flow directly to the west from this ridge into one of the former basins of the Baltic Sea – to the Yoldia Sea, or to the Ancylus Lake. A new divide was formed between the Šešupė and Įsrutis rivers, and the basins of the Nemunas and Prieglius rivers (formerly a single hydrographic system) became two independent drainage basins of the Baltic Sea. The present Nemunas Delta formation started after the Litorina Sea transgression when the Nemunas River mouth moved from a Baltic Sea nearshore position to close to the western margin of the Vilkiškės Marginal Ridge. A set of palaeogeographic reconstructions of the Nemunas and Šešupė rivers confluence area for different periods of the very end of the Last (Weichselian) Glacial and the beginning of the Holocene have been constructed.

Author Biographies

Albertas Bitinas, Klaipėda University, H. Manto Str. 84, LT-92294 Klaipėda

Open Access Centre for Marine Research, Dr., Prof.

Olga Druzhinina, I. Kant Baltic Federal University, A. Nevsky Str. 14, 236038 Kaliningrad Vyshtynets Museum of Nature and History, Krasnoles`e, 238023 Kaliningrad Oblast

Dr., Asoc. Prof.

Aldona Damušytė, Geological Survey of Lithuania, Konarskio Str. 35, LT-2600 Vilnius

Dr.

Tatiana Napreenko-Dorokhova, The Atlantic Branch of the P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Prospekt Mira 1, 236022 Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad Oblast

Dr.

Rimantė Guobytė, Geological Survey of Lithuania, Konarskio Str. 35, LT-2600 Vilnius

Dr.

Jonas Mažeika, State Research Institute Nature Research Centre, Akademijos Str. 2, LT-08412 Vilnius

Laboratory of Nuclear Geophysics and Radioecology, Hab. Dr., Prof.

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Published

2016-12-27

Issue

Vol. 61 No. 1 (2017)

Section

Articles

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