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Holocene and Lata Yistulian Paleogeography and Paleohydrology Prace Geograficzne nr 189 (2003)

Józef Wojtanowicz

PLENIVISTULIAN DUNES IN POLAND - A NEW VIEW ON THE DEVELOPMENT PHASES OF INLAND DUNES

1. INTRODUCTION

The occurrence of inland dunes in Poland is connected with the broadly understood pcriglacial zonę of the last Pleistocene glaciation, i.e. the Yistulian. In Europę most typical and numerous inland dunes are found in the Middle European Lowland belt, that is in the German Lowland, Polish Low-land, and Polesie. In Poland dunes occur also in the upland belt (Silesian Upland, Little Poland Upland, Lublin Upland) and in the Peri-Carpathian depression belt (Oświęcim Basin, Sandomierz Basin). That is why in the beginning of the 20^,h century the German and Polish scientists carried out their classic studies of inland dunes just in Central Europę.

Typical inland dunes are usually parabolic ones; transversal and longitu-dinal dunes are less freąuent. Inland dunes, mainly parabolic ones, form dune flelds covering large areas, for example in the pradolina of the Warta and Noteć rivers, in the Kampinos forest (westwards of Warsaw), and in several other regions of Poland.

Inland dunes, which have been studied in Poland and in the whole Europę till now, are hills reaching from several to a dozen or so metres (rarely over 20 m), and well visible in the landscape. These dunes are stabilized by pod-zolic soils and vegetation cover (pine forests).

The last part of the Pleistocene was recognized to be the time of their for-mation; several dune-forming phases were distinguished, which occurred during cold oscillations of that period sińce the Oldest Dryas. Recent inves-tigations madę in Poland have shifted the beginning of dune formation a little age. In the opinion of B. Manikowska (1991, 1995) the Late Glacial dunes were formed in the Kamion (=Epe) Interstadial (14.5 ka BP). The author of this paper recognized the initial phase of their formation around 16 ka BP on the basis of TL dating (Wojtanowicz 1996).