Palaeogeographic reconstruction of proglacial lakes in Estonia

This paper describes a Geographical Information System (GIS)-based palaeogeographic reconstruction of the development of proglacial lakes formed during deglaciation in Estonia, and examines their common features and relations with the Baltic Ice Lake. Ice marginal positions, interpolated proglacial lake water levels and a digital terrain model were used to reconstruct the spatial distribution and bathymetry of the proglacial lakes. Our results suggest that the proglacial lakes formed a bay of the Baltic Ice Lake after the halt at the Pandivere-Neva ice margin about 13.3 cal. kyr BP. Shoreline reconstruction suggests that two major proglacial lake systems, one in eastern and the other in western Estonia, were connected via a strait and thus had identical water levels. The water budget calculations show that the strait was able to transfer a water volume several times greater than the melting glacier could produce. As this strait compensated for the water level difference between the two lake parts, the subsequent further merging in north Estonia did not result in catastrophic drainage, as has been proposed.