Geographia Polonica (2011) vol. 84, Special Issue Part 1

Abstract

The Pleistocene soft rock pediments in the Central Moravian Carpathians developeddue to different geomorphic processes. At a locality situated between Nesovice and Brankovicevillages, it was mainly downwearing of the former river terrace and the underlying Lower Miocenestrata due to development of a small flat, at present dry valleys (dells). At Slavkov u Brna(Austerlitz), in turn, the leading process affecting the same sediments as at the previous localityconsisted in the recession of the northern valley side of the Litava River. The main reason for thedevelopment of the lower segment of the pediment at Slavkov u Brna in the contact zone withthe Litava River terrace was surface runoff. The present appearance of the pediments at bothlocalities is an effect of periglacial processes active in the Middle and mainly Late Pleistocene.Thus, the same landforms (pediments) developed in comparable geologic and climate conditionsdue to different processes caused by local geomorphic factors.

Keywords: Pleistocene pediments, backwearing, downwearing, Central Moravian Carpathians, Czech Republic

Tadeáš Czudek, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geography, Brno

Abstract

Ultramorphoscopic analysis offers one way of gaining an insight into temporal and spatialchanges that have taken place in the environment. The underlying basis here is a system ofclassified features; processes of physical, chemical and biological weathering; and processes oftransport through different environments. It is the aim of this article to present the use of morphoscopicSEM studies of podsolic soils from different parts of central and northern Europe inreconstructing the way litho- and pedogenetic conditions evolved in the Late Pleistocene andHolocene. By drawing on the research carried out, it has been possible to point to certain indicativemorphoscopic features of quartz grains that are characteristic for defined morphogenicenvironments.

Keywords: scanning electron microscope (SEM), quartz grain, sedimentation environment, podsolic soils, central and northern Europe

Marek Degórski [m.degor@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Alojzy Kowalkowski, Forest Research Institute, 05-550 Raszyn, Sękocin, Poland

Abstract

Stratigraphy of alluvia and chronology of the Holocene flood events were studied on thebasis of 50 radiocarbon dates as well as sedimentological and palynological analyses made on 20depositional sequences of sediments in the lower section of the Wisłok River valley. These sitesevidence the occurrence within the 4–5 m and 6–7 m high levels of the floodplain of separatealluvial fills and palaeochannel systems, recording phases of increased Wisłok activity and frequentfloods dated at: the Alleröd-Younger Dryas Phase, 9,900–9,600 BP, 8,500–8,000 BP, 6,600–6,100 BP, 5,400–5,000 BP, 4,400–4,000 BP, 2,100–1,700 BP, as well as the 11–13th centuries AD andthe middle of the 18th century AD. These periods are in accordance with the phases documentedearlier within the Upper Vistula River drainage basin, particularly in the for-mountainous sectionof the Wisłoka River valley, Vistula River valley downstream of Kraków , as well as in theLower San River valley.

Keywords: stratigraphy, alluvia, flood phases, Holocene, Wisłok River, SE Poland

Piotr Gębica [pgebica@ur.edu.pl]

Abstract

We review recent advances in the study of palaeofloods and in the reconstructions of climatefeatures from sedimentary archives in the Namib Desert. Global environments are knownto have varied over the past millennia, but the spatial patterns of these variations have remainedpoorly understood. We used palaeoflood sediments to reconstruct rainfall patterns over the last500 years (Little Ice Age). During the Little Ice Age, the northern Namib Desert and the OrangeRiver catchment experienced palaeofloods that exceeded those of the millennium prior and ofthe two centuries since. During the last two centuries, floods remained well below the Little IceAge maximum levels. The patterns of hydrological changes imply dynamic responses of rainfallto solar irradiance forcing changes involving the Benguela El Niño oscillation.

Keywords: palaeofloods, slackwater deposits, tropical-temperate-trough, solar irradiance, Little Ice Age, Namib Desert

Klaus Heine, Institute of Geography, University, D-93040 Regensburg, Germany
Jörg Völkel, Technische Universität München, Center of Life and Food Sciences Weihenstephan, Research Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, D-85350 Freising, Germany

Abstract

The actual state of research on natural aspects of history of prehistoric settlement inthe peri- and meta-Carpathian zones based on investigations of important multilayer Palaeolithicsites is presented. Traces of Palaeolithic people stay, in the form of cultural layers, arefound at sites representing three types of sedimentary environment, i.e. cave (Biśnik cave in theCzęstochowa Upland, Obłazowa cave in the Podhale region), loess (Galich and Yezupil in theGalich Prydnistrov’ia region, Velykyj Glybochok in the Podil’ia region), and travertine (Hôrka-Ondrej and other sites in the Spiš region).Different geological methods were used in investigations of separate site types, and the obtainedresults are complementary and verify one another. Their comparison enables us to obtain multilevelpicture of palaeoenvironmental changes. Correlation of deposit sections in these differenttypes of sites is based on climatically controlled sequences of environmental changes. Chronostratigraphicextents of individual cultural units from selected sites and their correlation arebased on oxygen-isotope stratigraphy. The extents are presented as continuous despite the factthat cultural layers represent mostly traces of short-lasting settlement.Investigations of Palaeolithic sites in the Podil’ia and Prydnistrov’ia regions proved that settlementexisted from the penultimate interglacial to the end of the last glacial (MOIS 7-2). Materialsfrom the Biśnik cave represent similar period but there are premises that Middle Palaeolithicsettlement started earlier.

Keywords: Palaeolithic chronology, cave sites, loess sites, travertine sites, palaeoenvironment, Poland, Ukraine

Maria Łanczont, Department of Geoecology and Palaeogeography, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Al. Kraśnicka 2 cd, 20-718 Lublin, Poland
Teresa Madeyska-Niklewska, Laboratoire de Géologie du Quaternaire de l'Institut de Géologie de l'Académie Polonaise des Sciences

Andrey Panin, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University Lengory 1, Moscow, 119991, Russia
Yulia Fuzeina, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University Lengory 1, Moscow, 119991, Russia
Inessa Karevskaya, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University Lengory 1, Moscow, 119991, Russia
Elena Sheremetskaya, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University Lengory 1, Moscow, 119991, Russia

Abstract

Evolution of dunes and other aeolian landforms is characterized by phases of sand drift,alternated with geomorphic stability. Formation of wind-blown landforms in Estonia is stronglycontrolled by land uplift, climate, parent deposits, re-advance of ice-dammed lakes, as well asthe Baltic Sea and Lake Peipsi water level changes. Different aeolian formations, such as coversandhillocks, blowouts, deflation hollows, foredunes, inland and coastal dunes, and wind-erodedplains are encountered. Forest cuttings and fires, military actions and other human activities triggeredthe movement of surficial sand, but wet environmental conditions, sparse population andrapid spreading of vegetation prevented extensive redistribution of loose sandy sediments by wind.In north-eastern Estonia, inland parabolic and transversal dunes were formed in severe climaticconditions of the Younger Dryas. Influence of climate is well seen also at the northern coast of LakePeipsi, where rhythmically changing water level has caused aeolian redistribution of sediments.

Keywords: aeolian landforms, palaeoclimate, neotectonic uplift, inland and coastal dunes, Lake Peipsi, Estonia

Anto Raukas, Institute of Ecology at Tallinn University, Uus-Sadama 5, Tallinn 10120, Estonia

Abstract

Geomorphic response to the Little Ice Age (LIA; ca 1250-1890 AD) in Slovakia wasmarked by the increased occurrence and effectiveness of fluvial, runoff, and some gravitationalprocesses. We identified four periods of increased frequency of big floods, namely: (1250)1378-1526 AD, the 1560s-1570s, the 1590s-1620s, and the 1660s-1850s, while the last periodshows two stages (the 1660s-1720s and the 1760s-1850s). Three identified periods of disastrousgullying accompanied by muddy floods (the 14th century, the mid-16th century - the 1730s, the1780s - the mid-19th century) refer to temporal conformity of both fluvial and runoff processes.High frequency of debris flows in the Slovak part of the Tatra Mts. occurred in the period of1400-1860 AD. Sparse mentions on precipitation-induced particular events of debris flows, landslidesor rockfalls are mostly linked with simultaneous occurrence of floods.

Keywords: geomorphic response, floods, gullying, muddy floods, debris flows, landslides, rockfalls, Little Ice Age, Slovakia

Milos Stankoviansky, Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Mlynskä dolina, 842 15 Bratislava 4, Slovak Republic
Peter Pišút, Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Mlynská dolina, 842 15 Bratislava 4, Slovakia

Abstract

Domination of the fragmentary or full of sedimentation gaps records causes the necessityof asking about criteria for distinguishing between global factors and local changes in thelandform evolution. This study has been conducted in the upper Ner Valley system at the Lublineksite, west of Łódź, central Poland. On the example of the Younger Dryas events in fluvialenvironment it has been shown that palaeogeographical evidence depends on the maturity of thelandform and its position in a system. When dealing with a discontinuous record, only reconstructionsof the tendency of evolution as well as its effects over a longer time period may describe thespecifics of the environment in a given period, while a comparison of different parts of the systemmay enable the elimination of local factors.

Keywords: palaeogeographical evidence, landform evolution, fluvial deposits, local factors, global changes, Younger Dryas, central Poland

Krystyna Turkowska, Chair of Quaternary Studies, University of Łódź, Narutowicza 88, 90-139 Łódź, Poland
Danuta Dzieduszyńska, Chair of Quaternary Studies, University of Łódź, Narutowicza 88, 90-139 Łódź, Poland

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study of relief transformation in central Poland(Fig. 1), which took place in the Neoholocene in the context of growing human impact andclimate fluctuations. Standard methods used in Quaternary geology and geomorphology wereemployed to examine Neoholocene aeolian, slope and fluvial deposits. Seven major stages anda few short-term episodes (Fig. 2), during which the process of relief transformation accelerated,have been distinguished. These stages are characterized by their varying length (from 160to 480 years) while their duration became gradually longer at the expense of those periods, duringwhich the relief transformation was slow. Major geomorphological processes in each stageand their consequences for relief transformation are briefly discussed. The results obtained arelinked to the development of prehistoric cultures in central Poland and to the periods of unstableclimate.

Keywords: human impact, aeolian deposits, slope deposits, fluvial deposits, Neoholocene, central Poland

Juliusz Twardy, Department of Quaternary Studies, Institute of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Geographical Sciences, University of Łódź, ul. Narutowicza 88, 90-139 Łódź, Poland

Abstract

Palaeoclimatic characteristics based on paleogeographic reconstructions for the optimumsof the Holocene and the last interglacial appear to be close in estimated range of globalwarming to those expected in the current century according to IPCC (scenario A1B). Reconstructionsof the state of environmental components in Northern Eurasia under given seasonaland annual temperature and precipitations allowed developing scenarios of expected changes inecosystems within individual landscape zones. Regions of most probable appearance of instabilityin ecosystems are mostly confined to northern lowlands (permafrost degradation), plains inthe southern East European Plain (accelerated erosion) and southern mountains (mudflows,landslides, etc.).

Keywords: palaeoclimates, global warming, ecosystems, prognosis, relief-forming processes, Northern Eurasia

Andrej Alekseevič Veličko, Laboratory of Evolutionary Geography, Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Staromonetny per. 29, Moscow 119017, Russia
Irina I. Spasskaâ, Laboratory of Evolutionary Geography, Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Staromonetny per. 29, Moscow 119017, Russia