Eemian Inter gla cial deposits at Haćki near Bielsk Podlaski:
im pli ca tions for the limit of the last gla ci ation in north east ern Po land
Stanisław BRUD and Mirosława KUPRYJANOWICZ
Brud S. and Kupryjanowicz M. (2002) — Eemian Inter gla cial de pos its at Haćki near Bielsk Podlaski: im pli ca tions for the limit of the last gla ci ation in north east ern Po land. Geol. Quart., 46 (1): 75–80. Warszawa.
Pol len anal y sis was con ducted on or ganic de pos its on a kame ridge at Haćki in north east ern Po land. The de pos its are re ferred to the Eemian Inter gla cial. Slope sed i ments only cov ered these biogenic deposits. The glacigenic land forms therefore re late to the Wartanian Gla ci ation, and so this area has not been oc cu pied by an ice sheet of the Vistulian Gla ci ation.
Stanisław Brud, In sti tute of Geo log i cal Sci ences, Jagiellonian Uni ver sity, Oleandry 2A, PL-30-063 Kraków, Po land, e-mail:
stbrud@ing.uj.edu.pl; Mirosława Kupryjanowicz, De part ment of Bot any, In sti tute of Bi ol ogy, Uni ver sity of Białystok, Świerkowa 20b, PL-15-950 Białystok, Po land, e-mail: kuprbot@noc.uwb.edu.pl (re ceived: No vem ber 3, 2000; ac cepted: Feb ru ary 26, 2001).
Key words: NE Po land, Wartanian Gla ci ation, Eemian Inter gla cial, Vistulian, kames, pol len anal y sis.
INTRODUCTION
Nu mer ous sites with biogenic de pos its have been found dur ing geo log i cal map ping of the Bielsk Podlaski sheet De - tailed Geo log i cal Map of Po land, 1:50 000 scale. All of these are lo cated on the Bielsk Plain, a vast morainic pla teau with ice-dammed lake de pos its (Fig. 1). The age of this plain is con - sid ered to be the Wartanian (Nowicki, 1971). On the ba sis of pol len anal y sis, the de pos its at Proniewicze P-3 bore hole have been re ferred to the Eemian Inter gla cial (Kupryjanowicz, 2000). De pos its from the same inter gla cial were al ready found in an other bore hole (PR. 1/93) near Proniewicze (Krupiński, 1995; Mycielska-Dowgiałło et al., 1995a).
Or ganic de pos its at Haćki S-3 bore hole have been sub - jected to pol len anal y sis (Brud and Kupryjanowicz, 2000), in or der to de ter mine their age.
GEOMORPHOLOGICAL SETTING OF THE BIELSK PODLASKI AREA
The area to the north of Bielsk Podlaski shows geomorphological char ac ter is tics typ i cal of ar eal deglaciation
(Mojski, 1969) (Fig. 2). This deglaciation con sisted of grad ual re duc tion in ice sheet thick ness, its dis mem ber ing into in di vid - ual dead ice blocks, and their fur ther melt ing. The most com - mon land forms oc cur ring north of Bielsk Podlaski are kames (Mojski and Nowicki, 1961). They rise from a few to about a dozen metres above melt-out de pres sions, mark ing an ac cu mu - la tion level at 145.0 m a.s.l. Limnoglacial kames are com posed mostly of fine-grained sed i ments, only their top most parts com pris ing tills and grav els. Of par tic u lar in ter est are closed de pres sions filled with the Eemian Inter gla cial or ganic de pos - its, sit u ated on top of flat kame sur faces (Mycielska-Dowgiałło, 1995a; Krupiński, 1995). The or i gin of these de pres sions is prob a bly as so ci ated with melt ing of small dead ice blocks. The depositional or i gin of the clastic over ly ing the organogenic de - pos its are dif fi cult to re con struct with out de tailed sedimentological stud ies.
West of Proniewicze, a vast kame ter race com posed of silty de pos its oc curs. Its flat sur face is pit ted by shal low melt-out de pres sions. In one of them, Eemian Inter gla cial or - ganic de pos its have been found by drill ing be neath or ganic and wash out de pos its (Kupryjanowicz, 2000). To the south, near Bielsk Podlaski and Augustowo, the study area is sur - rounded by vast glaciomarginal fans shed dur ing the Wkra Stadial of the Wartanian Gla ci ation (Mycielska-Dowgiałło et al., 1995b; Brud, 2000).
GEOMORPHIC AND GEOLOGICAL SETTING OF THE HAĆKI SITE
The most char ac ter is tic mor pho log i cal el e ment of the Haćki area is a vast de pres sion, bear ing two kame hills at its base (Fig. 3). One of them, called Góra Zamkowa, is a con - structed pre his toric ref uge. Steep scarps, over a dozen metres high, sur round the de pres sion. The kame ridges oc cur per pen - dic u lar to the scarps, sub di vid ing the de pres sion into in di vid - ual hol lows. The lat ter are filled with peat and wash out fines, over ly ing typ i cal melt-out silts. In the cen tral part of the north ern hol low, a cul tural layer dated to the Ro man pe riod (be fore 2000 years BC?) has been found by drill ing be neath a peat (Banaszuk et al., 1996). The main kame ridge is linguoid in shape (Klajnert, 1998), its top be ing sit u ated at the main ac - cu mu la tion level of 145.0 m a.s.l. (Fig. 4). The ridge is com - posed of silts over lain by flow tills. Shal low bore holes showed the pres ence of palaeodepressions filled with biogenic de pos its, and over lain by wash out sed i ments and a cul tural layer of un spec i fied age. These de pos its are not cov - ered by till. The pres ent-day flat kame sur face is a prod uct of anthropogenic pro cesses. Wa ter flow ing from the pla teau west of Haćki strongly eroded the prox i mal part of the kame tongue, form ing a gully and fill ing up the de pres sion in its dis - tal part. These pro cesses were in ten si fied af ter con struc tion of a lo cal road and land cul ti va tion.
POLLEN ANALYSIS RESULTS
De posits of the Haćki S3 bore hole (depth 3.47–5.40 m) have been sub jected to palynological anal y sis. The li thol ogy of these de pos its is as fol lows:
3.52–3.47 m — grey, or ganic sandy clay, 3.58–3.52 m — grey-greenish silty clay,
3.60–3.58 m — steel-grey clayey silt, 3.64–3.60 m — black, or ganic clayey silt, 5.40–3.64 m — strongly de cayed peat.
A de tailed de scrip tion of the palynology and the vegetational re con struc tion will be given in an other pa per.
Here, the palynological re sults from the ba sis for age de ter mi - na tion.
In the pol len di a gram of biogenic de pos its re cov ered from the S3 bore hole at, six lo cal pol len as sem blage zones (L PAZ) were dis tin guished (Fig. 5). The di a gram shows that the lower part of the ana lysed bore hole, from the bot tom to a depth of 3.62 m (H-1–H-4 L PAZ), rep re sents an inter gla cial suc ces - sion. This suc ces sion is not com plete, but shows some char ac - ter is tic fea tures, namely:
— a very high pol len value of Corylus avellana (max.
60%),
— a high pro por tion of Carpinus betulus, co in cid ing with a grad ual drop of Corylus,
— a very high val ues of Picea abies, char ac ter is tic of the pen ul ti mate phase of the suc ces sion, as well as the ac com pa ny - ing peak of Abies.
All these fea tures make it pos si ble to com pare the Haćki site with the Eemian Inter gla cial suc ces sion (cf. Mamakowa, 1989; Janczyk-Kopikowa, 1991).
The de vel op ment of veg e ta tion re corded in the seg ment of the Haćki bore hole stud ied spans the E4–E7 zones of the re -
76 Stanisław Brud and Mirosława Kupryjanowicz
Fig. 1. Lo ca tion of the study area
Fig. 2. Sim plified geomorphological sketch of the Bielsk Podlaski-Haćki area
Wartanian Gla ci ation: 1 — end mo raine, 2 — tills and glaciofluvial de - pos its, 3 — ice-marginal de pos its, 4 — kame ter race, 5 — limnoglacial kames; Vistulian Gla ci ation and Ho lo cene: 6 — flu vial ter races of the Biała River, 7 — shal low hol lows filled with biogenic de pos its;
Proniewicze P-3 — lo ca tion of boreholes men tioned in the text
gional biostratigraphy of the Eemian Inter gla cial (Mamakowa, 1989). Lo cal pol len as sem blage zones dis tin guished in the Haćki bore hole can be eas ily cor re lated, based on the Corylus, Carpinus, Tilia, Alnus and Pinus per cent ages, with anal o gous zones found in the PR. 1/93 bore hole at Proniewicze (Fig. 2), and the MI bore hole at Machnacz (Fig. 1) (Kupryjanowicz, 1991).
The top most part of the Haćki bore hole, in clud ing lo cal pol len as sem blage zones H-5 and H-6, how ever, is dif fi cult to cor re late with the re gional biostratigraphy of the Eemian Inter gla cial and the Early Vistulian stages.
The H-6 Betula zone show ing ex cep tion ally high per cent - ages of birch, prob a bly cor re lates with the lower Betula subzone of the re gional ho ri zon EV2, cor re spond ing to an older birch phase of the Amersfoort/Brörup Interstadial (Mamakowa, 1989). Sim i larly high birch val ues have nei ther been re corded in any seg ment of the Early Vistulian, nor dur - ing the Eemian Inter gla cial. At the end of the pine phase ter -
mi nat ing the Eemian suc ces sion in di a grams from some Pol - ish sites e.g. from Konopki Leśne, Klewinowo (Mamakowa, 1989, p. 129) and Machnacz (Kupryjanowicz, 1991), a marked in crease in birch per cent ages can be seen, but never ex ceed ing val ues typ i cal of EV2a Betula R PASZ (78% at Zgierz-Rudunki, a type lo cal ity for this re gional zone; cf.
Mamakowa, 1989).
Cor re la tion of the lo cal H-5 zone is even more dif fi cult.
The re cord of this zone in the Haćki bore hole is only con - tained in a 2 cm thick layer of steel-grey clayey silt. Lo ca tion of this zone be tween the pine phase of the Eemian Inter gla cial and the birch phase of the Amersfoort/Brörup Interstadial sug gests that it could rep re sent the first post-Eemian cool ing.
How ever, its pol len com po si tion, char ac ter ised by rel a tively high per cent ages of pine and birch and poorly marked peaks of Juniperus, Salix, and NAP, makes its cor re la tion with a re - gional EV1 Gramineae-Ar te mi sia-Betula nana ho ri zon prob - lem atic (Mamakowa, 1989). It seems pos si ble that the H-5
Fig. 3. Ae rial pho to graph of the study area
ho ri zon is an equiv a lent of the de clin ing pine phase of the Eemian Inter gla cial, be ing fol lowed higher by a hi a tus. On the other hand, the un usu ally high con tent of pol len, rarely en - coun tered in clastic de pos its, sug gests a very low ac cu mu la - tion rate. Therefore, the stud ied 1 cm thick sam ple could have rep re sented a sed i ment de pos ited over a long time, and its pol -
len ma te rial seems to con tain sporomorphs both of the de clin - ing pine phase of the Eemian Inter gla cial, and of the first post-Eemian cool ing, as well as the be gin ning of the first Vistulian interstadial. The very good state of pres er va tion, both of AP and of NAP, does not in di cate redeposition.
78 Stanisław Brud and Mirosława Kupryjanowicz
Fig. 4. Geo log i cal cross-sec tions A–B and C–D through the or ganic de pos its of the Haćki area (cf. Fig. 2)
Wartanian Gla ci ation: 1 — silts and fine-grained sands, 2 — flow till; Eemian Interglacial: 3 — silts, 4 — peats with clayey silt at the top; Vistulian Gla ci ation and Ho lo cene: 5 — silts and clay with or ganic mat ter, 6 — slope-wash sands, 7 — grey silts (ar chae o log i cal layer), 8 — slope-wash silts and fine-grained sands; 9 — peats; 10 — palynological anal y sis; S1–S5 and 3, 5, 3J, 3P — lo ca tion of boreholes and pits
T a b l e 1 Cor re la tion of the lo cal pol len as sem blages zones dis tin guished in the pro file from Haćki with the lo cal pol len as sem blages zones from Proniewicze and re gional pol len as sem blage zones
Proniewicze PR.1/93 (L PAZ) Krupiński (1995)
Haćki S-3 (L PAZ)
Re gional pol len as sem blage zones Mamakowa (1989)
– H-6
Betula
EV2 Pinus-Betula subzone EV2a Betula
– H-5
Pinus-Betula-Juniperus-NAP
EV1
Gramineae-Ar te mi sia-Betula nana PR-6
Pinus-(Picea-NAP)
H-4 Pinus
E7 Pinus
Hi a tus H-3
Picea-(Abies)
E6 Picea-Abies-Alnus PR-4
Carpinus-(Corylus-Alnus)
H-2
Carpinus-Corylus-Alnus
E5
Carpinus-Corylus-Alnus
PR-3
Corylus-(Tilia-Alnus)
H-1 Corylus-Tilia-Quercus
E4 Corylus-Quercus-Tilia
Eemian Interglacial deposits at Haćki near Bielsk Podlaski: implications for the limit of the last glaciation in northeastern Poland79 5.25
5.00
4.75
4.50
4.25
4.00
3.75
3.50 H-1
H-2
H-3 H-4
Betula
Corylus avellana
Tilia
Quercus
Ulmus
Fraxinus
Alnus Acer
Carpinus betulus
Picea abies
Abies alba
Hedera helix
Viscum
Juniperus
L PAZ
H-6 H-5
Pinus
AP
NAP nr of pollen samples Lithology Depth (m)
1 3 5 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 22
Ha ćki
6
. 5
.
g i
F HaćkiS3 :per cent ag epol le ndi a gram(se lecte dpol le nonly) ;ana lyse db yKupryjanowicz(2000) e
e s s n o i t a n a l p x e
l
a c i g o l o h t i l
r
o
F Fig.4
DISCUSSION
Re sults of the pol len anal y sis of biogenic de pos its at Haćki, sug gest ing an Eemian age, has im pli ca tions for the geo log i cal evo lu tion of the area dur ing the Vistulian. This prob lem has re - cently been dis cussed by Banaszuk (1998) who places the south ern most ex tent of the Vistulian Gla ci ation in the Nurzec River val ley. Such a con clu sion is based on sev eral tens of TL age de ter mi na tions made in the Białystok and Wysokomazowiecka Pla teaus, three of them de ter mined at Haćki. Other TL de ter mi na tions from this re gion have also been re ported by Mycielska-Dowgiałło (1995a, b), av er ag ing around 110 ka. The er rors as so ci ated with these dates sug gest that the kames of the Bielsk Plain orig i nated dur ing the end of the Wartanian or dur ing the Early Vistulian. De tailed geo log i - cal stud ies do not pro vide ev i dence for the pres ence of the Vistulian ice sheet in this area. The re gion stud ied was lo cated in a periglacial zone, as shown by the pres ence of ice wedge casts a few metres long pre served in kames, as well as of wind-polished clasts. All the Eemian biogenic sites on the Bielsk Plain (Haćki S-3, Proniewicze P-3 and PR. 1/93) clearly cor re late with each other. None of them is cov ered by till. The pres ence of nu mer ous glacigenic hol lows filled by biogenic de -
pos its on the Bielsk Plain (Brud, 2000) sug gests that this area formed a lakeland dur ing the Eemian.
CONCLUSIONS
1. Pol len anal y sis of peat and or ganic silt and clay at Haćki (bore hole S-3, depth 3.47–5.40 m) doc u ments the pres ence of a new Eemian Inter gla cial site on the Bielsk Plain. The de pos its show a re cord of the post-optimal part of this inter gla cial (from the ha zel phase on wards) as well as the Early Vistulian, most prob a bly up to the birch phase of the Amersfoort/Brörup Interstadial.
2. The geomorphological set ting of the Eemian deposits at Haćki is sim i lar to the other sites re lated to kame ac cu mu la tion, where the Eemian deposits are over lain by wash out-lacustrine sed i ments only, and not by a till. Only periglacial struc tures are pre served. One can in fer, there fore, that the Bielsk Plain has not been cov ered by a Vistulian ice sheet.
3. The or i gin of the glacigenic land forms should be re lated to the Wkra Stadial of the Wartanian Gla ci ation. These land - forms were only mod er ately re mod elled un der periglacial con - di tions dur ing the Vistulian.
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80 Stanisław Brud and Mirosława Kupryjanowicz
