Palaeogeography of South Lithuania during the last ice age

The palaeogeographical development of South Lithuania during the last ice age (Nemunas = Weichselian) was reconstructed by various methods. The recurring permafrost and cryogenic structures in the ground were an important phenomenon of the southeastern periglacial zone. The 3–4 lithocomplexes of the extraglacial cover correlate with the Lithuanian and Mid-European Late Pleistocene Weichselian (Nemunas) biostratigraphic divisions. In the northwest, the palaeogeography is influenced by the deglaciation during the Žiogeliai (Frankfurt) Phase and the Baltija (Pomeranian) Stage of the last ice age. The deglatiation process is shown in a series of palaeogeography maps. During the Weichselian, the SW–NE oriented middle part of the area, commonly regarded as part of the Vilnius-Warsaw-Berlin Urstromtal (ice-marginal streamway), underwent intensive interstadial fluvial erosion and accumulation, glacial erosion and sedimentation, followed by subsequent glaciofluvial accumulation on sandurs and glaciolacustrine sedimentation in a series of small basins.