Geo log i cal Quar terly, 2002, 46 (2): 165–188 The maxi mum ice sheet limit of the Vistulian Gla ciation in northeast er n Poland and neigh bour ing are as Tomasz KRZYWICKI Krzywicki T. (2002) — The maxi m um ice sheet limit of the Vistulian Glaci ation in northeast ern Po land and neighbour ing areas. Geol. Quart., 46 (2): 165–188. Warszawa. This pa per outlines a new ap proach to re construc ting Vistulian ice sheet lim its in NE Po land and ad jacent areas of Lithu ania and Belarus. It is based on geo logi cal in vesti ga tions of land forms and depos its either of a hypo theti cal boundary to the Vistulian ice sheet lim its. The main con clu sions are: 1 — the area was cov ered twice by the Vistulian ice sheet; the first time dur ing the Świecie Stadial (67–50 ka BP) and the second time during the Main Stadial (24–12 ka BP); 2 — the limit of the older stadial was farther to the south a that of the youn ger one; 3 — due to cover ing of the Eemian sed i ments by the ice sheet of the Świecie Stadial the limit of the Vistulian Gla ci ation has moved about 15–20 km southwar ds. Tomasz Krzywicki, Pol ish Geo log i cal In sti tute, Rakowiecka 4, 00-975 Warszawa, Poland, e-mail: [email protected] (receiv ed: June 13, 2001; accepte d: De cember 11, 2001). Key words: north east ern Po land, Vistulian Gla ciation, Eemian Inter gla cial, ice sheet limit, tills. INTRODUCTION (Astapova et al., 1987; Karabanov, 1987; Valtchik et al., 1990; Gaigalas, 1995; Kondratiene, 1996; Satkunas et al., 1997). The other ice sheet of the Vistulian Gla ci ation that cer tainly advance d onto the area of north ern Poland was that of the Main This pa per deals with the limits of the Vistulian Gla ci ation Stadial (Leszno-Pomeranian). At the end of the glaci ati on a in north east ern Po land and neigh bour ing ter ri to ries of Lith u a- conti n u ous retre at of the ice sheet occurred, inter rupted by nia and Belarus. It is a sum mary of the Ph. D. thesis short stagna ti on events (of the rank of phases and subphases) (Krzywicki, 1999b). marked by moraine belts. A sim ilar idea was ear lier pos tu lated The aim of the work was to inves ti gate which of the ice by Żurek (1975), Ber (1990) and Lisicki (1993). The stag nati on sheets of the Vistulian Glaci ati on advance d onto the area of pe ri ods were usu ally sta ble, rarely with os cil la tory fluc tu a tions, northeas tern Poland, as well to recon struc t and de limit its maxi - lo cally of a transgressive char ac ter. It seems that the only ex - mum extent . cep tion was the lo cal Wigry transgres sion that oc curred be - The Oldest (Toruń) Stadial, two thin gla cial tills found by tween the max im um advance of the ice sheet and the Pom er a - Makowska (1976) and Drozdowski (1986) in the Lower nian Phase (Lisicki, 1993). Vistula region, is not con sidered in this paper, which deals with In the north the re search area em braces up lands and the ice sheet limits of the two Vistulian Glaciations: the Świecie outwash plains of young-glacial re lief. These are frag ments of Stadial and the Main Stadial. the Mrągowo Lakeland and Mazury Great Lakes Dis trict, Many Polish au thors have suggest ed that the ice sheet of the Mazury Plain, part of the Ełk Lakeland and Rajgród Lakeland, Świecie Stadial extende d into northern Poland, though its pres- as well as the Augustów Plain, Dainava Plain and part of the ence east and south of the Mazury Great Lakes Dis trict has not Centra l Neman Lowland. In the south, the study area covers been proved. Both Lith u anian and Belarussian authors sug gest fragm ents of old-glacial uplands of the Kolno Up land, that there was no ice sheet in their coun tries at that time Białystok Upland, Sokółka Hills, Hrodna Upland and Lida 166 Tomasz Krzywicki Plain, with in ter ven ing de pres sions of the Kurpie Plain, the Leszno Phase slightly far ther south, across the area of Biebrza Val ley, High Neman Lowland. The re search area co - Szczuczyn and Wąsosz, ap proach ing the macroforms de- vers 26 sheets of the De tailed Geo log i cal Map of Po land, scale scribed later by Musiał (1984) as the slope of a marginal con- 1:50 000 and oc cupies a total area of approx im ately 7700 km2. tact and glaciofluvial kame rampart. The Lith u a nian and Belarussian parts cover about 3000 km2. In the Kurpie Plain, Rühle and Sokołowska (1961), Słowański (1971), Bogacki (1976) and Kozłowska and Kozłowski (1995b) drew the ice sheet limit of the Bal tic Gla - PREVIOUS RESEARCH ciation across “old” frontal mo raines sur rounded by the youn - gest outwash plain depos it s. Galon and Roszkówna (1961), Kalniet and Karaszewska Be fore 1939 Pol ish in ves ti ga tions of the last gla ci ation in (1972), Różycki (1972a, b, 1978), Mojski (1972), Straszewska northeas tern Poland were lim ited to the Suwałki area (1975), Wołk-Musiał (1980) and Żurek (1984) drew the line (Wołłosowicz, 1926, 1928; Pietkiewicz, 1928; Pawłowski, across the northern border of the Biebrza Val ley. Żurek (1975), 1933). Woldstedt (1935) publi shed a map of the Quater nary more over, con sid ered that the ice sheet en tered the Biebrza de pos its of East Prus sia with the ice sheet limit of the Vistulian mar ginal val ley as far as the Ełk and Jegrznia rivers, as shown Gla ciati on marked, trending along the Narew River val ley near by the Kuwasy ket tle hole. Łomża, south of Mońki and north of Sokółka (Fig. 1). The Ber (1972a, b, 1974, 1982) and Żurek (1975) claimed that maxi m um extent of the Pomer a nian Stadial was shown as the ice sheet limit of the Leszno Phase in the south ern part of runing across the northern margin of the Mazury Lakeland. The the Augustów Plain ran across the northern slopes of the “Is - first Pol ish at tempt to summa rise the Qua ter nary stud ies of East lands” of Sztabin, Jastrzębna, Nowy Lipsk and Lipsk. A simi lar Prus sia was the pa per by Galon (1937), which also include d a opinion was express ed by Bogacki (1976), who as sumed that map of mor pho logi cal landsca pes of East Prussia construc ted the ice sheet reached the Biebrza Val ley, cover ing the whole of on the ba sis of Woldstedt’s map (1935). Galon (1937) include d the Augustów Plain. the whole Lakeland within the ex tent of the ice sheet of the Ber (1975b) re ported that the ice sheet limit of the Leszno Pom er a nian Stadial, with its limit runnin g across the area of Phase which, as he assum ed, coin cide d with the maxi m um ex- Mikołajki, Orzysz and Ełk. tent of the North Pol ish Glaci ati on, trends across the Kolno Up- After 1939, stud ies of Quater nary depos it s and ex tents of land and along the north ern end of the Biebrza Valley (from ice sheets in north eastern Po land be came more sys tem atic. Cwaliny through Kowalewo, Łodygowo, Bęćkowo, Grajewo, Majdanowski (1947) drew the ice sheet limit of the Vistulian Danowo, Kosiły, Dręstwo Lake, Woźnawieś and Tajno Lake). Gla ci ation south of Szczytno, north of Rozogi, be tween Pisz Re cently, Ber (1999, 2000), quot ing Liszkowski (1993), has and Biała Piska, north of Grajewo, south of Rajgród, north of con sid ered that glacioisostasy had an im pact on the maxi m um Sztabin and along the Wołkuszanka River val ley. Halicki ex tent of the Vistulian Gla ci ation and the po si tion, di rec tion (1950, 1951) recog nise d, on the basis of palynological studies , and extent s of reces sion-oscillation marginal zones. depos it s of two more glaciations above Eemian Inter gla cial de - Glacioisostasy op er ated pri mar ily along lon gi tu di nal tec tonic pos its: Gla ci ation V (North Polesie or North Pol ish Glacia tion) faults of the deeper base ment. The mar ginal zone of the Main and Glaci ation VI (Bal tic Glaci ation). The for mer reached the Stadial of the Vistulian Gla ci ation co in cides, ac cord ing to Ber area of Supraśl, Gródek and Jałówka (Halicki, 1951). Farther (1999, 2000), with the longi tu di nal Sajno-Rygol fault. east, Belarus, Halicki drew the limit of Gla ci ation V across Marcinkiewicz (1973) recon struc ted the extent of Svisloch, Porozow, Lyskov, Ruzhana, Byten and south of young-glacial reli ef on the basis of the anal ysis of topo graphic Baranovitchi. Pachucki (1961) mapped the Neman Ice Lobe in maps of the South Mazury and the Suwałki area, at a scale of the Suwałki area. Kondracki (1952) disti n guished 9 belts of 1:25 000, under sta nd ing its limit as a bound ary betwe en an area fron tal mo raines de pos ited dur ing the Bal tic Gla ci ation.