The SIS limits and related proglacial events in the Severnaya Dvina basin, northwestern Russia: review and new data

Two underlying problems of the Late Quaternary history of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet (SIS) are reviewed in the paper: the position of the southeastern SIS boundary at the Late Glacial Maximum (LGM), which is still widely “migrating” depending on authors’ concepts, and the formation of associated pro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bulletin of the Geological Society of Finland
Main Authors: N.E. Zaretskaya, A.V. Panin, N.V. Karpukhina
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Geological Society of Finland 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.17741/bgsf/90.2.012
https://doaj.org/article/00ed23c9b18d44ab94bec3c934802525
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Summary:Two underlying problems of the Late Quaternary history of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet (SIS) are reviewed in the paper: the position of the southeastern SIS boundary at the Late Glacial Maximum (LGM), which is still widely “migrating” depending on authors’ concepts, and the formation of associated proglacial lakes (i.e. their dimensions, drainage and chronology) in the valleys of Severnaya Dvina River basin. The position of maximum ice limit in the northwest of the Russian Plain remains debatable and is the least reliable compared to the other SIS sectors. Most of the recent reconstructions concerning ice-dammed lakes (water overflows, restructuring of river valleys etc.) exploited the geological survey results of mid-20th century: since then no geological studies have been conducted of the proposed spillways, their filling sediments and age using the modern sedimentological and geochronological techniques. As a result, the majority of the above-mentioned reconstructions have to be considered hypothetical. Here we present new results on two valley sites that allow to suggest that: 1) the SIS did not advance through the lower and middle Vychegda valley at LGM as suggested in some recent publications; 2) the LGM glacier-dammed lake had a very limited extension in the Severnaya Dvina valley and did not exceed to the Vychegda River mouth.