Deglaciation models from the Swedish West Coast

Deglaciation processes within different rock relief types are discussed. The lower parts of the fissure-valley landscape in western Sweden were covered by the late-glacial sea at deglaciation, while the rock plateaux between the valleys formed an arctic archipelago. The glacial movements, deposition activity and recession were intimately dependent on the variations of the topography and on the buoyancy of the seawater in the valleys. The opinion that a piedmont glaciation existed in eastern Halland during the deglaciation stage has been corroborated concerning areas above the marine limit. In the valleys below this limit the ice margin, however, was straight or slightly concave. The western part of the South Swedish Highland, situated high above the marine limit, is characterized by a zonal deglaciation; zone by zone of the ice margin was detached from the actively moving ice and became immobile. Subglacially formed eskers appear together with glaciofluvial deltas which formed extramarginally in ice-dammed lakes. The moraine forms are often dominated by 1–2 km long drumlins with rock cores. Where the ice diverged over a convex bedrock basement, Rogen-like moraine ridges, radial as well as transverse, were formed during the deglaciation stage when the ice was stagnating.