Česlovas Pakuckas (or Czesław Pachucki): pioneer of modern glaciomorphology in Lithuania and Poland

• Published in: Geological Society, London, Special Publications
• Main Authors: Gaigalas, Algirdas-Juozapas, Graniczny, Marek, Satkūnas, Jonas, Urban, Halina
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://vu.lvb.lt/VU:ELABAPDB4028928&prefLang=en_US

The contributions of the Lithuanian geologist Ceslovas Pakuckas (1898-1956) (in Poland - Czestaw Pachucki) to Pleistocene geology are of major significance, and he is regarded as the pioneer of modern glaciomorphological investigations of the Baltic marginal highlands in Lithuania and Poland. Pakuckas published his first paper on the glacial morphology of south Lithuania in 1934, followed in 1936 with one on the orientation marginal moraines in the east Lithuanian highlands and their origin, and in 1938 with another on the glacial morphology of south Lithuania. His ideas on glacial morphology were presented at the First Conference of Lithuanian and Latvian geologists held in Kaunas in 1940. Working in Poland after World War II, Pakuckas continued his glaciomorphological research and compiled data on the correlation of end moraines ofNE Poland and south Lithuania with those in west Belarus as well as the Peribalti- cum. He concluded that during the Last Glaciation, the continental glacier was not a single ice sheet but consisted of a number of flows, each dependent on topography and each with its specific glacial centre. In Lithuania, Pakuckas defined one large field of lateral moraines, the so-called Baltic High- land consisting of the Suduva, Dzukija and Aukstaitija highlands. He traced this formation SW as the Mazurian arc of lateral moraines (in NE Poland) and found that the Svencionys-Naroch or north Belarus field of lateral moraines extend to the NE of the Baltic Highland.