The Main Stages in Studying Quaternary Deposits of the White Sea and Controversial Problems of Its Late Pleistocene and Holocene Paleogeography

• Main Authors: A. E. Rybalko, T. Yu. Repkina, A. V. Starovoitov, N. E. Zaretskaya, О. P. Korsakova, D. A. Subetto, M. Yu. Tokarev, P. Yu. Belyaev, А. Е. Рыбалко, Д. А. Субетто, Т. Ю. Репкина, А. В. Старовойтов, Н. Е. Зарецкая, О. П. Корсакова, М. Ю. Токарев, П. Ю. Беляев
• Other Authors: This research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, project no. 22-17-00081. The authors would like to mentally recall and thank those people who gave their health and their minds for the knowledge of the geological history of this most interesting and beautiful White Sea., Работa выполненa при поддержке проекта РНФ № 22-17-00081. Авторы хотят еще раз мысленно вспомнить и поблагодарить тех людей, которые отдали свое здоровье и свой ум для познания геологической истории этого интереснейшего и красивейшего Белого моря.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Russian
• Published: Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk. Seriya Geograficheskaya 2023
• Subjects: сейсмодислокации; lithostratigraphy; stratigraphic scheme; palynology; glacio-marine deposits; marine perluvium; lithodynamics; glacioisostatic transgression; ice sheets; seismic dislocations; литостратиграфические исследования; стратиграфическая схема; палинология; ледниково-морские отложения; морской перлювий; литодинамические процессы; гляциоизостатическая трансгрессия; ледниковые щиты; Barents Sea; Lavrova; Onega; White Sea; Ice Shelves; Белого моря
• Online Access: https://izvestia.igras.ru/jour/article/view/1663; https://doi.org/10.31857/S2587556622060152

From the geological point of view, the White Sea is one the best studied basins. The first schemes of its evolution were put forward by I.K. Avilov based on the data obtained before 1950, and by M.A. Lavrova based on the results of studying coastal outcrops on the Kola and Onega peninsulas and in Karelia. Research activities of the Institute of Oceanology, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, in the White Sea in 1964–1968 under the leadership of E.N. Nevesskii made it possible to present the first lithostratigraphic scheme of its Quaternary sequence and to distinguish the following stages in its evolution: glacial, glacial-marine, transitional, and marine. The onset of the first periglacial basins dates back to the Middle Dryas, while the glacier with surrounding ice shelves occupied a significant part of the White Sea basin. Besides extensive geological sampling, research activities of VSEGEI and Moscow State University in 1970–1986 included seismoacoustic profilingand side scan sonar survey, which were for the first time applied for the shelf geological survey. New data on the distribution of varved glaciolacustrine beds gave evidence for the initiation of water basin in the White Sea depression, which was later filled with the Barents Sea waters since the Allerød until the Boreal. Further studies (MAGE, Sevmorgeo, IO RAS, VSEGEI) made it possible to obtain fundamentally new geological and geophysical materials and to build geological maps at a scale of 1 : 1000000 for the entire seabed of the White Sea. These research activities included specific biostratigraphic studies and dating of the Quaternary sediment sequences. Specialists from KSC RAS, Institute of Lacustrine Research RAS, Moscow State University, Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University, and Institute of Geography RAS carried out coastal research that included drilling of lakes recently isolated from the sea. The latter made it possible to clarify the age and number of Postglacial transgressive-regressive cycles of the White Sea and to establish the ...