Early Weichselian palaeoenvironments reconstructed from a mega‐scale thrust‐fault complex, Kanin Peninsula, northwestern Russia

• Published in: Boreas
• Main Authors: LARSEN, EILIV, KJæR, KURT H., JENSEN, MARIA, DEMIDOV, IGOR N., HAKANSSON, LENA, PAUS, AAGE
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2006
• Subjects: Barents Sea; Kara Sea; Kanin peninsula; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03009480600781925; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1080%2F03009480600781925; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03009480600781925

A section, almost 20 km long and up to 80 m high, through alternating layers of diamict and sorted sediments is superbly exposed on the north coast of the Kanin Peninsula, northwestern Russia. The diamicts represent multiple glacial advances by the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea ice sheets during the Weichselian. The diamicts and stratigraphically older lacustrine, fluvial and shallow marine sediments have been thrust as nappes by the Barents Sea and Kara Sea ice sheets. Based on stratigraphic position, OSL dating, sea level information and pollen, it is evident that the sorted sediments were deposited in the Late Eemian‐Early Weichselian. Sedimentation started in lake basins and continued in shallow marine embayments when the lakes opened to the sea. The observed transition from lacustrine to shallow marine sedimentation could represent coastal retreat during stable or rising sea level.