Browsing by Author "Morawski, Wojciech"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Item
    Differences in the regional stratigraphy of NE Poland caused by vertical movements due to glacioisostasy
    (Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 2009) Morawski, Wojciech
    Geological mapping in combination with geophysical investigations and borehole analyses show differences of the Pleistocene between the Warmia and Mazury palaeogeographic provinces in NE Poland. The (more western) Warmia province has a crystalline basement that is covered by a folded sedimentary succession of 2-4 km thick. The (more eastern) Mazury province (eastern) has a basement that forms part of the rigid East European crystalline craton, which is covered by a sedimentary cover of only 1-1.5 km thick. Cyclic loading by the Pleistocene ice sheets in this area induced glacioisostatic processes of different intensities, resulting in changing palaeogeographic conditions. The changes were increased by intense neotectonic activity that was induced by the ice sheets in the intermediate zone between the two provinces, stretching along the western slope of the crystalline craton. Significant part of intermediate zone forms a belt of crevasse-infill landforms deposited between the Warmia and Mazury lobes of the last glaciation. Studied deposits reveal a cyclic reactivation of the interlobe zone during the successive Pleistocene glaciations. Considerable variations of the relief of the top-Neogene, vertical discontinuities cutting the Pleistocene and Neogene, stratigraphic gaps within the Pleistocene succession, and thick glaciolacustrine successions result from the vertical neotectonic movements in the intermediate area between the two provinces.
  • Item
    Neotectonics induced by ice-sheet advances in NE Poland
    (Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 2009) Morawski, Wojciech
    Differences in the geological structure of the hard-rock substratum of the Warmia and Mazury regions (NE Poland) resulted during the Pleistocene in different reactions on the load exerted by the land-ice masses. In the (western) Warmia province, vertical glacio-isostatic movements caused cyclic erosional events affecting the relatively thick sedimentary cover, which became more compacted. In contrast, the thinner sedimentary cover of the rigid crystalline basement favoured quiet sedimentation in the (eastern) Mazury province. The zone in between these two areas runs NNE-SSW for some 80 km. It is several kilometres wide and is composed of landforms that owe their origin to the sedimentary infilling of crevasses. This intermediate zone formed an interlobe are between the two huge ice lobes that covered the Warmia and Mazury areas during the last ice age. The basement of the zone coincides with the crystalline craton slope, which is accompanied to the west by a parallel marginal trough. Cyclic advances and retreats of the Pleistocene ice sheet induced neotectonic mobility. Glacio-isostatic processes resulted in the intermediate zone in block movements (uplift and subsidence) that affected the whole Cenozoic succession, creating mainly vertical discontinuity zones. Glacio-isostasy also induced vertical tectonic movements within the older deposits, reaching down to the crystalline basement. A tectonic graben thus developed. It is bounded by flexures accompanied on both sides by positive structures that may indicate transpressional movements with a strike-slip stress component.
  • Item
    Sedimentary record of a Pleistocene ice-sheet interlobate zone (NE Poland)
    (Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 2012-09-12T07:51:05Z) Gruszka, Beata; Morawski, Wojciech; Zieliński, Tomasz
    Well developed NE-SW trending corridors of outwash in NE Poland are associated with a series of lakes with a similar direction of elongation. The glaciofluvial corridor under study consists of parallel ridges with associated channels and kames. The deposits are flanked by till and hummocky terrain. The gravel ridges are composed of sand and gravel deposits that are cross-stratified, massive or graded, and that contain cut-and-fill structures and large intra-clasts of sand and gravel. Locally the deposits show normal faults. The succession of one of the ridges is interpreted to reflect the infilling of a braided channel in a crevasse. Sedimentation took place in some phases when the ice-sheet regime changed from active to stagnant. Sandy-gravel ridges occur within this complex perpendicular to the Weichselian icesheet margin. The corridor is interpreted as an interlobate area in the zone between the Warmia and Mazury ice lobes. The braided- channel deposits are not comparable to typical Polish sandurs. The lithofacies characteristics show higher energy conditions, and the channels are deeper than those typical of Pleistocene lowland sandurs. The sand and gravel ridges are interpreted as interlobate eskers.