Chapter 31 - European Russia: glacial landforms prior to the Last Glacial Maximum

Abstract

In European Russia, glacial landforms prior to the Last Glacial Maximum correlate to the Middle Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 16 and 8–6) and Late Pleistocene (MIS 5 and 4). The original glacial topography of the Don Glaciation (MIS 16), as well as of Dnieper Stage (MIS 8) is hardly visible. Fennoscandia Ice Sheet expanded during Moscovian Stage (MIS 6) and left the largest zone of glacial landscapes in Central and Northeastern European Russia. Glacial landscapes of the Early–Middle Weichselian (Last Glacial Cycle; LGC; MIS 5–4) are present in the Northeastern Russian Plain that was affected by the Barents Ice Sheet advances. The Barents Ice Sheet expanded over the entire Arctic coast of Russia to the east of the White Sea but did not exceed the south of the Arctic Circle. Two Early–Middle Weichselian (LGC)-independent glacial stages are identified in the landforms and in optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating at 80–90ka and c. 60ka in the Arctic Pechora Basin, where marginal moraines are topographically expressive. Depositional successions from the MIS 4 of till and glaciomarine, glaciofluvial, and glaciolacustrine sediments were found in the coast and the west-central part of the Kola Peninsula. European Russia was deglaciated completely during MIS 3 (c. 58–29ka BP) under variable relatively warm climate conditions, which were more severe than nowadays.