The palaeogeography of mid- and east Europe during the last cold stage, with west European comparisons

• Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1977
• Subjects: permafrost
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1977.0114; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.1977.0114

In this review of work on mid- and east European palaeogeography during the last cold stage the author has used a stratigraphic division based on deep-sea sediments in the Atlantic. Difficulties apparent in palaeogeographical reconstructions are discussed. In such reconstructions the sequences of permafrost structures, loesses, fossil soils, slope sheets, fluviatile sediments, vegetation, glacial deposits and land forms are analysed. The consideration of events in both their stratigraphic order (time scale) and their areal distribution in Europe has enabled the author to give a far more accurate indication of temperature and moisture changes in the different parts of Europe. Contrasts revealed by a section through east and west Europe reflect differences in the evolution of permafrost, in the succession of vegetation and soils, and in the history of glaciation. Their source was the different degree of climatic continentality which increased throughout the last cold stage. Continentality was characterized by the contemporaneous decrease in temperature, increase in temperature amplitudes and decrease in precipitation values. The presence of permafrost in Europe was responsible for the different development of biota. This makes for difficulty in reconstructing palaeogeographic conditions on the basis of actualism.