Deglaciation chronology of the Pandivere and Palivere ice-marginal zones in Estonia

Abstract

Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) ¹⁴C dates, pollen and plant macrofossil evidence and lithostratigraphic parameters obtained from four Late Glacial lake sediment records were used to study the deglaciation chronology of Estonia. AMS dates show that the northern part of the Saadjärv Drumlin Field was free of ice cover at approximately 14 300–14 200 cal yr BP. These ages fit well with the ice retreat estimations (14 700–14 500 cal yr BP) of the Otepää ice-marginal zone in the south and the deglaciation of the Pandivere Upland in the north (13 800 cal yr BP). Glaciolacustrine sediments of the Haljala and Udriku basins were deposited in proglacial lake A₁, a northeastern bay of the Baltic Ice Lake that already existed ca. 13 800 cal yr BP. The Palivere ice-marginal zone, and proglacial lake A₂ associated with it, was formed ca. 500 years later, at approximately 13 200 cal yr BP. New evidence indicates that ice readvance during the Palivere stade terminated during the Allerød chronozone.