Ventifacts as palaeo‐wind indicators in southern Scandinavia

• Published in: Permafrost and Periglacial Processes
• Main Author: Schlyter, Peter
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1995
• Subjects: Ice Sheet; Permafrost and Periglacial Processes
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ppp.3430060302; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fppp.3430060302; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ppp.3430060302

Abstract Systematic transect and grid surveys of ventifact presence/absence were made in order to assess palaeo‐ventifact abundance/distribution through Denmark and southern Sweden. The transects reveal a continuous ventifact distribution from western Denmark to south‐central Sweden giving evidence for the existence of significant palaeo‐wind action in extensive areas previously thought lacking in such evidence. Based on ice recession dates and vegetation development, ventifact formation is interpreted as having occurred mainly contemporaneously with the receeding Weichselian ice‐sheet. A grid survey in Scania, southern Sweden, demonstrates a continuous ventifact distribution irrespective of surface materials and topography. The ventifact occurrence outside areas with sandy soils indicates that suspended particles were effective abrading agents. Stable ventifacts confirm previous observations of easterly wind abrasion in Scania and exhibit an extremely small directional variability within, and between, sites. Ventifacts in southern Scandinavia are probably more indicative of transitory paraglacial conditions than periglacial conditions as such.