Polygenetic Lowland Relief Around the City of Łódź—Glacial Inheritance and Periglacial Transformation

Abstract

The Łódź region in central Poland straddles the Middle Polish Lowlands in the north and the Upland belt in the south. The most elevated area, above 200 m asl, occurs in the central part, whereas lower areas surround it in the west, north and east. The gross morphological framework of the area was shaped by glacial processes during the Saalian Glaciation (Middle Pleistocene), but was subsequently transformed by fluvial, lacustrine, and especially slope and aeolian processes under periglacial conditions of the late Pleistocene (Weichselian). The relief of the Łódź region is therefore polygenic. Two parts of this region are presented in more detail. These are the immediate vicinity of the city of Łódź with various glacial landforms reshaped by periglacial processes and the Szczerców Basin in the south, with vast sandy plains, moraine plateaus, broad valleys, and dune fields. Dry valleys and dune chains are typical inherited cold-climate landforms, whereas ice-wedge casts are typical periglacial ground deformation structures formed due to the presence of permafrost. The Holocene did not cause significant landform change, although human-induced modifications of the landscape are very legible.