Ice-flow pattern and extent of the last Scandinavian Ice Sheet southeast of the Baltic Sea

A review of scientific literature, geological maps and available previous digital data on ice-marginal positions, glacial landforms and sediment distribution are utilised to reconstruct ice streams and lobes, and the maximum (LGM) and subsequent recessional ice-marginal positions of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet (SIS) southeast of the Baltic Sea. This paper presents preliminary results of the ongoing research that aims to build a Geographic Information System (GIS) based model on the extent and timing of the last SIS in the area between its maximum extent and the Baltic Sea. Digitized subglacial bedforms, ice marginal and other glacial landforms and features from published sources are compared and validated against digital elevation model (DEM). This has allowed specifying, revising and questioning the location of the LGM, and to interpret and correlate the post-LGM ice streams with marginal positions. Morphological evidence demonstrates that large ice streams of between 100 and 300 km lengths, were in operation ca 2–3 ka after the LGM and formed the Middle and North Lithuanian end moraines. Ice streams from the Onega and White Sea basins had high lateral slopes and clearly channelled flow while the ice streams that drained the ice sheet through the Ladoga–Ilmen depression and in the eastern Baltic usually had a fan-shaped flow pattern and morphologically unclear lateral slopes. In elevated areas and highlands that are located between ice streams a crossing of lineated bedforms is common. One set of the crossing lineations on Zemaitia, Eastern Kursa, Vidzeme, Haanja, Latgale and Sudoma highlands that are 200–350 km inside of the LGM margin, has northwest–southeast orientation that in general conforms to the direction of ice flow during the LGM and Baltija phases. It is expected that the presented compilation will stimulate discussions and scrutiny of earlier published data and generate ideas for future investigations.