Glacial geology of North Lithuanian ice marginal ridge and surrounding plains

Abstract

During the last decades many studies were concentrated on the North Lithuanian ice marginal ridge of the Last Glaciation (Late Nemunas, Late Weichselian). The North Lithuanian ice marginal ridge or so–called Linkuva ridge was formed by Žiemgala Ice Lobe that advanced at the end of the glaciation through the Gulf of Riga. This ridge is considered as a boundary of glacier limit during the North Lithuanian recessional phase of the Late Nemunas Baltija stage. Linkuva ridge is stretching about 130 km as a bow-shaped ridge and is marking the boundary of an active ice lobe. The thickness of Quaternary deposits is 10–12 meters on the average but varies from 1.0 to 39.0 meters: the thinnest Quaternary cover is characteristic for river valleys, whereas the thickest one is related with the highest altitudes of the present topography or with rare palaeoincisions of the sub–Quaternary surface. Pleistocene strata are subdivided to three till complexes in some places separated by inter–till sediments.