Pebble beaches of the Murmansk coast – unique formations of the Kola Peninsula

Abstract

The structure and formation of white-pebble beaches located on the Murmansk coast of the Barents Sea and observed in the area of the Teriberka settlement are considered in this paper. The uniqueness of such beaches is a presence of pebbles, which have a high degree rounding and can take the shape close to the egg geometry. A light boulder-pebble material of the beaches is located in canyons. Within a canyon, a beach (tidal and surf zones) and two terraces can be distinguished conditionally. Walls and bed of the canyons are composed of red rocks, supposedly, granites and enderbites, while the white boulder-pebble material of the beaches may be composed of gneiss-granites, plagiogranites and other ancient rocks. Due to wave activity in the Barents Sea, there is a continuous interaction of pebbles and boulders of the beaches with canyon-forming rocks. As the result of this process, peculiar shapes of the relief can be observed within tidal and surf zones of the beaches in the canyon bed – boilers, wells, trenches, grottos. Pebble beaches could have formed on the Murmansk coast as a consequence of the geological situation of the area, which included the uplift of the Baltic Shield, the destruction of ancient rocks and their abrasion against younger rocks. Pebble beaches are unique Arctic objects not only for tourism purposes, but also in terms of geology.