L. R. Semenova

Late Neopleistocene glaciations of Lovozero Tundra (Kola Peninsula)

Abstract. The paper characterizes glacier formation complexes resulting from interaction of the Scandinavian ice sheets and Lovozero Tundra mountain glaciers due to insufficient data of their development patterns. Correlating sections along the Lovozero Tundra periphery contributed to reconstructing stages of ice sheet and mountain glacier oscillations during the Podporozhye and Ostashkov periods of the Late Neopleistocene. Their development and interaction scenarios are similar: before the Scandinavian ice sheet spread into the Lovozero Tundra, a vast mountain glacier had been formed here, but later, during a warming period, the ice sheet retreated to the west. The analyzed fluvioglacial–moraine pair as an oscillatory warming-cooling indicator in their interlayer strata (in both ice sheet and mountain glacier formations) proves the glaciation history. Two main differences pertain to the studied glaciations: the ice sheet penetrated the Lovozero Tundra region only once during the Podporozhye period, while it occurred twice during the Ostashkov period; after the glacier retreat, six approximately equal cooling periods were recorded in the Podporozhye period, while the Ostashkov period was associated with five periods, the last of which caused the ice sheet to re-enter the Lovozero Tundra. The Late Neopleistocene glaciation reconstruction specifies the area’s geological development history.

Keywords: Scandinavian ice sheets, mountain glaciers, moraines, fluvioglacial deposits, cooling-warming cycles, palynological determinations