Late Pleistocene glacial and lake history of northwestern Russia

Five regionally significant Weichselian glacial events, each separated by terrestrial and marine interstadial conditions, are described from northwestern Russia. The first glacial event took place in the Early Weichselian. An ice sheet centred in the Kara Sea area dammed up a large lake in the Pechora lowland. Water was discharged across a threshold on the Timan Ridge and via an ice-free corridor between the Scandinavian Ice Sheet and the Kara Sea Ice Sheet to the west and north into the Barents Sea. The next glaciation occurred around 75-70 kyr BP after an interstadial episode that lasted c. 15 kyr. A local ice cap developed over the Timan Ridge at the transition to the Middle Weichselian. Shortly after deglaciation of the Timan ice cap, an ice sheet centred in the Barents Sea reached the area. The configuration of this ice sheet suggests that it was confluent with the Scandinavian Ice Sheet. Consequently, around 70-65 kyr BP a huge ice-dammed lake formed in the White Sea basin (the 'White Sea Lake'), only now the outlet across the Timan Ridge discharged water eastward into the Pechora area. The Barents Sea Ice Sheet likely suffered marine down-draw that led to its rapid collapse. The White Sea Lake drained into the Barents Sea, and marine inundation and interstadial conditions followed between 65 and 55 kyr BP. The glaciation that followed was centred in the Kara Sea area around 55-45 kyr BP. Northward directed fluvial runoff in the Arkhangelsk region indicates that the Kara Sea Ice Sheet was independent of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet and that the Barents Sea remained ice free. This glaciation was succeeded by a c. 20-kyr-long ice-free and periglacial period before the Scandinavian Ice Sheet invaded from the west, and joined with the Barents Sea Ice Sheet in the northernmost areas of northwestern Russia. The study area seems to be the only region that was invaded by all three ice sheets during the Weichselian. A general increase in ice-sheet size and the westwards migrating ice-sheet dominance with time was reversed in Middle Weichselian time to an easterly dominated ice-sheet configuration. This sequence of events resulted in a complex lake history with spillways being re-used and ice-dammed lakes appearing at different places along the ice margins at different times.     

Climate and environment on the Karelian Isthmus, northwestern Russia, 13000-9000 cal. yrs BP

Sediment sequences retrieved from Lake Medvedevskoye (60°13'N; 29°54'E) and Lake Pastorskoye (60°13'N; 30°02'E), Karelian Isthmus, northwestern Russia, were analysed for lithology, pollen and diatom stratigraphy, total organic carbon content and mineral magnetic parameters. Age control for both sequences was provided by AMS ¹⁴C measurements and the Vedde Ash tephra. The reconstructed climatic and environmental development shows the deglaciation of the sites and the establishment of sparse shrub and herb/grass vegetation before 12650 cal. yrs BP ('Allerød'; GI-1a). Steppe tundra and cold, dry conditions prevailed until about 11000 cal. yrs BP, i.e. throughout the 'Younger Dryas' (GS-1) and the earliest Holocene. The establishment of open Picea-Pinus-Betula forest around the lakes at about 11 000 cal. yrs BP coincides with the first distinct change towards gradually warmer and more humid climatic conditions. Boreal forest with Picea, Pinus, Betula, Alnus incana and Corylus was present at the lower altitude site between c. 10700 and 10200 cal. yrs BP, while open Betula-Pinus forest continued to dominate the vegetation around the higher altitude site. After a short, possibly colder, phase around 10200-10000 cal. yrs BP, which is expressed by a marked reduction in vegetation cover and decreased lake productivity, climatic conditions became significantly warmer and possibly more humid. Boreal forest with Pinus, Betula, Picea, Alnus incana, Corylus and Ulmus became widespread in the region after 10000 cal. yrs BP. The delayed environmental response of the lakes and their catchment to hemispheric warming at the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary may be explained by a sustained blocking of westerly air masses due to the presence of the Scandinavian ice sheet and associated strengthened easterlies and anticy-clonic circulation and/or extensive permafrost.     

Geochemistry of the Kola River, northwestern Russia

The Kola River in the northern part of the Kola Peninsula, northwestern Russia, flows into the Barents Sea via the Kola Bay. The river is a unique place for reproduction of salmon and an important source of drinking water for more than 500,000 people in Murmansk and the surrounding municipalities. To evaluate the environmental status of the Kola River water, sampling of the dissolved (<0.22 μm) and suspended (>0.22 μm) phases was performed at 12 sites along the Kola River and its tributaries during 2001 and 2002. Major (Ca, K, Mg, Na, S, Si, HCO₃ and Cl) and trace (Al, As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sr, Ti, and Zn) elements, total and particulate organic C (TOC and POC), N and P were analysed. Comparison with the boreal pristine Kalix River, Northern Sweden, shows that, except for Na, Cl, Al, Cu and Ni, which exceed the concentrations in the Kalix River by as much as 2–3 times, the levels of other major and trace elements are close to or even below the levels in the Kalix River. However, the results also demonstrate that pollutants from the three major sources: (1) the Cu–Ni smelter in Monchegorsk, (2) the open-pit Fe mine and ore concentration plant in Olenegorsk, and (3) the Varlamov, the Medveziy and the Zemlanoy creeks, draining the area of the large agricultural enterprises in the lower part of the watershed, have a major influence on the water quality of the Kola River.     

Natural and man-made influences on suicides in northwestern Russia

Our main aim was to identify the impacts of natural (solar activity, geomagnetic disturbances) and man-made factors on suicides in northwestern Russia. Data on a total of 908 suicides in the town of Kirovsk (Murmansk oblast) were analyzed for the period from 1948 to 2010. The rates of suicides were analyzed with respect to seasons of the year. We have identified three maxima in the seasonal distribution of the number of suicides [March–May (P < 0.001), July (P = 0.006), October (P < 0.001)], which coincide with maxima in the distribution of the most intense (Ap > 150 nT) magnetic storms. Multi-taper method-spectrum analysis revealed periodicities (~9–10 and ~25 years) which may be related to the main cycles of solar activity. The periods of ~3.1–3.5 and ~2–2.3 years are probably the third and the fifth harmonics of 11-year solar cycle, respectively. These periods are correlating with similar periodic variations in geomagnetic aa-indexes and meteorological parameters. It was determined the statistically significant (r = 0.8; P = 0.005) relationship between suicide and Cu emissions from Cu–Ni smelters of Russian North for the period 1997–2009.     

中国北西部中新生代盆地砂岩铀成矿区划及找矿方向

通过对盆地地质构造环境、盖层组成与结构、古气候及演化、赋铀砂体类型、后期构造改造、砂岩铀成矿作用等六个因素的分析，提出了中国北西部中新生代盆地砂岩铀成矿区划方案，并讨论了各成矿区的主要找矿方向。     

Geostatistical regionalization of glacial aquitard thickness in northwestern Germany, based on fuzzy kriging

In many instances hydrogeological parameters obtained by conventional methods for selected localities within an aquifer or an aquitard are not sufficient for adequate regionalization at the scale of the entire layer. Here, we demonstrate an application of the fuzzy kriging method in regionalization of hydrogeological data, in which the set of conventional, crisp values is supplemented by imprecise information subjectively estimated by an expert. It is believed that such an approach eventually may reflect the real-world conditions more closely than a traditional crisp-value approach, because the former does not impose exactness artificially on phenomena which are diffuse by their nature. Spatial interpolation was done for the thickness of one of the major aquitards (till and glaciolacustrine clay) in northwestern Germany. The dataset consists of 329 crisp values from boreholes supplemented by 172 imprecise values defined as fuzzy numbers. It is demonstrated that the reliability of regionalization was higher, compared to regionalization performed with the crisp dataset only. Fuzzy kriging was performed with FUZZEKS (Fuzzy Evaluation and Kriging System) developed at the Ecosystem Research Center at the University of Kiel.     

Eurasian ice-sheet interaction in northwestern Russia throughout the late Quaternary

Sediment successions from the Kanin Peninsula and Chyoshskaya Bay in northwestern Russia contain information on the marginal behaviour of all major ice sheets centred in Scandinavia, the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea during the Eemian-Weichselian. Extensive luminescence dating of regional lithostratigraphical units, supported by biostratigraphical evidence, identifies four major ice advances at 100-90, 70-65, 55-45 and 20-18 kyr ago interbedded with lacustrine, glaciolacustrine and marine sediments. The widespread occurrence of marine tidal sediments deposited c. 65-60 kyr ago allows a stratigraphical division of the Middle Weichselian Barents Sea and Kara Sea ice sheets into two shelf-based glaciations separated by almost complete deglaciation. The first ice dispersal centre was in the Barents Sea and thereafter in the Kara Sea. It is possible to extract both flow patterns from ice marginal landforms inside the southward termination. Accordingly, it is proposed that the Markhida line and its western continuation are asynchronous and originate from two separate glaciations before and after the marine transgression. The marine sedimentation occurred during a eustatic sea-level rise of up to 20 m/1000 yr, i.e. the Mezen Transgression. We speculate that the rapid eustatic sea-level rise triggered a collapse of the Barents Sea Ice Sheet at the MIS (Marine Isotope Stage) 4 to 3 transition. This is motivated by lack of an early marine highstand, the timing of events, and the marginal position of Arkhangelsk relative to open marine conditions.     

Last Interglacial marine environments in the White Sea region, northwestern Russia

Marine sediments from river sections in the Mezen River drainage, northwest Russia, have been analysed for dinoflagellate cysts, foraminifers and molluscs. The sediments were dated by pollen analysis and by reference to the local sea-level history, and are Late Saalian to late Eemian (c. 133 to 119.5 kyr in age). The Late Saalian deglaciation was characterized by Arctic conditions, but a few centuries into the Eemian the Gulf Stream system carried warm Atlantic water into the region. At 129.8 kyr BP there was a marked increase in the influx of Atlantic water, and the advection of warm Atlantic water was stronger and probably penetrated further eastwards than at present. The molluscs, dinoflagellate cysts and foraminifers reflect conditions warmer than present and that the optimum temperature occurred at the time of the early Eemian global sea-level rise. Around 128 kyr BP, the eustatic sea-level rise was curbed by isostatic rebound and accompanying regression and constriction of marine passages to the White Sea. Local, low-saline, stratified basins developed and characterized the next five to six millennia.     

GIS‐based reconstruction of Late Weichselian proglacial lakes in northwestern Russia and Belarus

Reconstructing ice‐lake histories is of considerable importance for understanding deglacial meltwater budgets and the role of meltwater reservoirs for sea‐level rise in response to climate warming. We used the latest data on chronology and ice‐sheet extents combined with an isostatically adjusted digital elevation model to reconstruct the development of proglacial lakes in the area of the Karelian ice stream complex of the Late Weichselian Scandinavian Ice Sheet on the East European Plain. We derived the deglacial ice lake development in seven time‐slices from 19 to 13.8 ka, assuming the individual ice‐marginal positions to be isochronous throughout the studied domain. Modelling is based on mapping of critical drainage thresholds and filling the depressions that are potentially able to hold meltwater. Such an approach underestimates the real dimensions of the ice lakes, because the role of erosion at the thresholds is not considered. Our modelling approach is sensitive to the (local) ice‐margin location. Our results prove the southward drainage of meltwater during the glacier extent maxima and at the beginning of deglaciation whereas rerouting to the west had taken place already around 17.5 ka, which is some 1.5 ka earlier than hitherto supposed. The total ice‐lake volume in the study area was lowest (~300 km³) during the maximum glacier extent and highest (~2000 km³) during the highstand of the Privalday Lake at c. 14.6 ka. At 14.6–14.4 ka, the Privalday Lake drained to the early Baltic Ice Lake. The released ~1500 km³ of water approximately corresponds to 20% of the early Baltic Ice Lake water volume and therefore it is unlikely that it was accommodated there. Thus, we argue that the additional meltwater drained through the Öresund threshold area between the early Baltic Ice Lake and the sea, becoming a part of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet's contribution to the Meltwater Pulse 1A event.     

Deglaciation history of Lake Ladoga (northwestern Russia) based on varved sediments

Lake Ladoga in northwestern Russia is Europe's largest lake. The postglacial history of the Ladoga basin is for the first time documented continuously with high temporal resolution in the upper 13.3 m of a sediment core (Co1309) from the northwestern part of the lake. We applied a multiproxy approach including radiographic imaging, (bio‐)geochemical and granulometric analyses. Age control was established combining radiocarbon dating with varve chronology, the latter anchored to a correlated radiocarbon age from a lake close by. The age‐depth model reveals the onset of glacial varve sedimentation at 13 910±140 cal. a BP, when Lake Ladoga was part of the Baltic Ice Lake. Linear extrapolation of published retreat rates of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet provides a formation age of the Luga moraine close to Lake Ladoga's southern shore of 14.5–15.9 cal. ka BP, older than previously assumed. Varve sedimentation covers the Bølling/Allerød interstadial, the Younger Dryas stadial and the Early Holocene. Varve‐thickness variations, conjoined with grain‐size and geochemical variations, inform about the relative position of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet and the climate during the deglaciation phase. The upper limit of the varved succession marks the change from glaciolacustrine to normal lacustrine sedimentation and post‐dates the drainage of the Baltic Ice Lake as well as the formation of the Salpausselkä II moraine north of Lake Ladoga, by c. 250 years. The Holocene sediment record is divided into three periods in the following order: (i) a lower transition zone between the Holocene boundary and c. 9.5 cal. ka BP, characterized by mostly massive sediments with low organic content, (ii) a phase with increased organic content from c. 9.5 to 4.5 cal. ka BP corresponding to the Holocene Thermal Maximum, and (iii) a phase with relatively stable sedimentation in a lacustrine environment from c. 4.5 cal. ka BP until present.     

Extending the known distribution of the Younger Dryas Vedde Ash into northwestern Russia

The known distribution of wind‐blown Vedde Ash (ca. 10.3 ka BP) has been extended to the Karelian Isthmus in northwestern Russia. This has been possible as the result of a density separation technique that separates the rhyolitic Vedde Ash shards from the minerogenic host sediment. The Vedde Ash occurs in the middle of a pollen zone with high percentages of, for example, Artemisia and Chenopodiaceae, suggesting that the Younger Dryas (or GS‐I in the GRIP ice‐core event stratigraphy) was cold and dry throughout its duration. This is in agreement with sites in south Sweden where the Vedde Ash also occurs in the middle of a pollen zone dominated by Artemisia, Chenopodiaceae and Cyperaceae. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The first radiocarbon data of bone remains of mammoth faunal forms in northwestern Russia

Unlike in the neighboring territories, the distribution and the period of habitation of late Pleistocene mammoth complex animals in the northwestern area of Russia had not been studied until recently. This article fills in this gap using the bone material from the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the collections of one of the authors. The samples of 14 bones and teeth of big mammals uncovered in different places of the region were dated. The data obtained by conventional ¹⁴C method and AMS method agree with each other and make it possible to determine two periods of habitation of mammoth complex animals in the region: 39 000–23 000 years ago and 13 000–9800 years ago, which confirms that ice-free landscapes existed here at these time intervals.     

The last Scandinavian Ice Sheet in northwestern Russia: ice flow patterns and decay dynamics

Advance of the Late Weichselian (Valdaian) Scandinavian Ice Sheet (SIS) in northwestern Russia took place after a period of periglacial conditions. Till of the last SIS, Bobrovo till, overlies glacial deposits from the previous Barents and Kara Sea ice sheets and marine deposits of the Last Interglacial. The till is identified by its contents of Scandinavian erratics and it has directional properties of westerly provenance. Above the deglaciation sediments, and extra marginally, it is replaced by glaciofluvial and glaciolacustrine deposits. At its maximum extent, the last SIS was more restricted in Russia than previously outlined and the time of termination at 18-16 cal. kyr BP was almost 10 kyr delayed compared to the southwestern part of the ice sheet. We argue that the lithology of the ice sheets' substrate, and especially the location of former proglacial lake basins, influenced the dynamics of the ice sheet and guided the direction of flow. We advocate that, while reaching the maximum extent, lobe-shaped glaciers protruded eastward from SIS and moved along the path of water-filled lowland basins. Ice-sheet collapse and deglaciation in the region commenced when ice lobes were detached from the main ice sheet. During the Lateglacial warming, disintegration and melting took place in a 200-600 km wide zone along the northeastern rim of SIS associated with thick Quaternary accumulations. Deglaciation occurred through aerial downwasting within large fields of dead ice developed during successively detached ice lobes. Deglaciation led to the development of hummocky moraine landscapes with scattered periglacial and ice-dammed lakes, while a sub-arctic flora invaded the region.     

冀西北晚侏罗世火山-沉积盆地的性质及构造环境

冀西北晚侏罗世髫髻山组和后城组火山岩的岩石学-地球化学分析结果揭示,晚侏罗世的火山岩主要为来自富集地幔的钾玄岩系列和部分壳源高钾酸性岩石组合。通过对髫髻山组之上的后城组的地层层序和沉积构造研究,认为这套河-湖相沉积形成在伸展背景下的断陷盆地之中,下部由粗粒冲积扇和辫状河体系组成,上部则为河湖相沉积物,并出现火山岩夹层,从而在总体上表现为一个向上变细的沉积层序。髫髻山组到后城组的层序反映出从断陷盆地到坳陷盆地的发展过程。此外,后城组形成后所发生的区域性挤压作用导致了这期伸展盆地的反转。     

Late Pleistocene chronology and environment of the “ice-free corridor” of northwestern Alberta

Pollen and macrofossil analyses of two radiocarbon-dated lake sediment cores in the upper Peace River district were used to investigate the controversial late-glacial geochronology of the “ice-free corridor.” The basal mineral-rich sediments contain reworked, radiogenically “dead” palynomorphs, as well as intrusive “modern” carbon. Analyses of the basal sediments from Boone Lake show that two ¹⁴C ages greater than 12,000 yr B.P. are spuriously old due to contamination by organic matter of Cretaceous age. The data support occlusion or near occlusion of Laurentide and Cordilleran ice in the Peace River area during the late Wisconsinan period. The sediment record began around 12.000 yr B.P. in the ice-dammed and enlarged Boone Lake. An initially open, sedge-dominated cover was invaded by sage, willow, grass, and poplar by 11,700 yr B.P., suggesting that a habitable landscape has existed in the area for at least 12 millennia. The data, however, do not support the ice-free corridor arguments of B. O. K. Reeves (1973, Arctic and Alpine Research5,1–16; 1983, In “Quaternary Coastlines and Marine Archaeology: Towards the Prehistory of Land Bridges and Continental Shelves” (P. M. Masters and N. C. Fleming, Eds.), pp. 389–411. Academic Press. New York), who suggests that ice occlusion did not occur in the Peace River Valley during the last 55,000 yr.     

Late Pleistocene stratigraphy and sedimentary environments of the Severnaya Dvina‐Vychegda region in northwestern Russia

The Late Pleistocene stratigraphy from the Severnaya Dvina‐Vychegda region of northwestern Russia is revised based on investigations of new localities, revisiting earlier localities, introduction of about 110 new OSL dates and burial depth corrections of earlier published OSL dates, in addition to six new radiocarbon dates. Most of the OSL samples studied here are from fluvial and subaquaeous sediments, which we found to be well bleached. Six chronostratigraphical units and their sedimentary environment are described, with the oldest unit consisting of pre‐Eemian glacial beds. For the first time, Early Weichselian sediments are documented from the region and a fluvial environment with some vegetation and permafrost conditions is suggested to have persisted from the end of the Eemian until at least about 92 ka ago. The period in which a Middle Weichselian White Sea Lake could have existed is constrained to 67?62 ka, but as the lake level never reached the thresholds of the drainage basin, the lake probably existed only for a short interval within this time‐span. Blocking and reversal of fluvial drainage started again around 21?20 ka ago when the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet advanced into the area, reaching its maximum 17?15 ka ago. At that time, an ice‐dammed lake reached its maximum water level, which was around 135 m above present sea level. Drainage of the lake started shortly after 15 ka ago, and the lake was emptied within 700 years. Severe periglacial conditions, with permafrost and aeolian activity, prevailed in the area until about 10.7 ka.     

Early Weichselian palaeoenvironments reconstructed from a mega-scale thrust-fault complex, Kanin Peninsula, northwestern Russia

A section, almost 20 km long and up to 80 m high, through alternating layers of diamict and sorted sediments is superbly exposed on the north coast of the Kanin Peninsula, northwestern Russia. The diamicts represent multiple glacial advances by the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea ice sheets during the Weichselian. The diamicts and stratigraphically older lacustrine, fluvial and shallow marine sediments have been thrust as nappes by the Barents Sea and Kara Sea ice sheets. Based on stratigraphic position, OSL dating, sea level information and pollen, it is evident that the sorted sediments were deposited in the Late Eemian-Early Weichselian. Sedimentation started in lake basins and continued in shallow marine embayments when the lakes opened to the sea. The observed transition from lacustrine to shallow marine sedimentation could represent coastal retreat during stable or rising sea level.     

New data on the Ladoga transgression,the Neva River formation,and agricultural development of northwestern Russia

Doklady Earth Sciences -     

Geochronology of the Dovyren intrusive complex, northwestern Baikal area, Russia, in the Neoproterozoic

The paper reports newly obtained data on the geochronology of the Dovyren intrusive complex and associated metarhyolites of the Inyaptuk Formation in the Synnyr Range. The data were obtained by local LA-ICPMS analysis of zircons in samples. The U-Pb age of olivine-free gabbronorite from near the roof of the Yoko-Dovyren Massif is 730 ± 6 Ma (MSWD = 1.7, n = 33, three samples) is close to the estimated age of 731 ± 4 Ma (MSWD = 1.3, n = 56, five samples) of a 200-m-thick sill beneath the pluton. These data overlap the age of recrystallized hornfels found within the massif (“charnockitoid”, 723 ± 7 Ma, MSWD = 0.12, n = 10) and a dike of sulfidated gabbronorite below the bottom of the massif (725 ± 8 Ma, MSWD = 2.0, n = 15). The estimates are also consistent with the age of albite hornfels (721 ± 6 Ma, MSWD = 0.78, n = 12), which was produced in a low-temperature contact metamorphic facies of the host rocks. The average age of the Dovyren Complex is 728.4 ± 3.4 Ma (MSWD = 1.8, n = 99) based on data on the sill, near-roof gabbronorite, and “charnockitoid”) and is roughly 55 Ma older than the estimate of 673 ± 22 Ma (Sm-Nd; [13]). The U-Pb system of zircon in two quartz metaporphyre samples from the bottom portion of the Inyaptuk volcanic formation in the northeastern part of the Yoko-Dovyren Massif turns out to be disturbed. The scatter of the data points can be explained by the effect of two discrete events. The age of the first zircon population is then 729 ± 14 Ma (MSWD = 0.74, n = 8), and that of the second population is 667 ± 14 Ma (MSWD = 1.9, n = 13). The older value pertains to intrusive rocks of Dovyren, and the age of the “rejuvenated” zircon grains corresponds to the hydrothermal-metasomatic processes, which affected the whole volcano-plutonic sequence and involved the serpentinization of the hyperbasites. This is validated by the results of Rb-Sr isotopic studies with the partial acid leaching of two serpentinized peridotite samples from the Verblyud Sill. These studies date the overprinted processes at 659 ± 5 Ma (MSWD = 1.3, n = 3).