Southern Baltic area during the last deglaciation

Abstract

In the Polish economical zone of the Baltic Sea there are boulder fields (residuum of end moraines), remnants of end moraines, glaciofluvial deltas, eskers, and ice·dam lake deposits formed during a decay of the last Scandinavian ice sheet. Landforms and deposits of three ice marginal zones were distinguished in the Southern Baltic. The Gardno Phase probably corresponds to the Halland-West Sk¯ne Phase, dated at ca. 14 ka BP, and to the Middle Lithuanian Phase. The Słupsk Bank Phase is marked at a bottom of the Baltic Sea by boulder fields on the Słupsk Bank and by remnants of end moraines in the southern Bornholm Basin and the western Gdańsk Basin. It is to be correlated with the ice limit in Sk¯ne, dated at 13.5 ka BP, and with the North Lithuanian Phase at ca. 13.2 ka BP. The Southern Middle Bank Phase, marked by glaciofluvial deltas on this bank and by end moraines in the central Bornholm Basin, most probably corresponds to the ice margin in Sk¯ne, dated at 13.0-12.9 ka BP, and to the Otep¬¬ Phase in the east.