Abstract
The headwaters of fluvial systems on the East European Plain between the boundaries of the Marine Isotope Stage 2 (MIS 2) and MIS 6 glaciations evolved during the last 150,000 years. At least three main events of high surface runoff caused intensive erosion: at the end of MIS 6, at the end of MIS 2 and in the Middle Holocene. Erosion developed in the territory with variable resistance of geological substrate, from hard-to-erode tills to weak sandy deposits. All erosional features in moraines formed in the pre-Holocene time. Even relatively large forms, such as balkas (small dry valleys), have not yet reached concave longitudinal profiles. A general tendency of their development was deepening. Short episodes of incision occurring during climatic events with increased water flow alternated with long periods of stabilization. Sand-covered areas are most favorable for linear erosion. The gullies formed in the Middle Holocene developed concave longitudinal profiles. The diversity of catchment areas, initial slope inclinations and sediment properties causing their resistance to erosion led to greater differences in the relief features and evolution of the upper reaches of the fluvial systems within the MIS 6 glaciation area compared to the more uniform landscape conditions in the extraglacial regions.
Highlights
The relief is one of the most inert components of the landscape, second only to the lithological basis in this respect
A digital elevation model (DEM) of the surface of the MIS 6 morainic plain was built on the basis of the altitude position of the moraine determined in more than 70 cores for the territory with an area of 18 km2
Most researchers agree that both the formation and major erosion phases in dry valleys and old ravines in the Russian Plain occurred within cold phases of the glacial-interglacial climatic rhythms, while during the interglacials the sides and bottoms of small erosion forms were stabilized by soil cover [8,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45]
Summary
The relief is one of the most inert components of the landscape, second only to the lithological basis in this respect. The same processes of fluvial landforms replacing primary glacial relief were widespread over all of the territory previously covered by MIS 6 glaciation in other regions of Europe—in Poland [3] and Germany [4,5], as well as in North America [6]. In these fluvial systems the headwater elements, each only a few kilometers long, are of the high importance, as their total length is up to 80% of the entire length of the channel network [7]
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