The Young Baltic advance in the western Baltic depression

Abstract

The last Weichselian glacial advance into the western Baltic depression, the so-called “Young Baltic” glacier advance is described. In the southern Baltic depression, ice masses flowed westwards and fanned out in the western Baltic region where they terminated along the end moraines of the East Jutland advance (Denmark), Sehberg advance (Schleswig-Holstein) and Mecklenburg advance (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern). The westward  ice advance is likely due to the rapid melting of Norwegian and Swedish ice masses which had previously blocked the more easterly ice masses from draining to the west and north-west. The deposition of a purely eastern-sourced debris facies by a Baltic ice stream in the far west might be the result of ice/bed separation during flow.