Abstract
We used waterborne Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) for mapping stratigraphic boundaries, sedimentation environments, and specific features of lacustrine sediments of postglacial Lake Polevskoye, which is located in Eastern Fennoscandia, near Lake Onega. The purpose of our study was to examine the spatial structure of the lacustrine sediments including particular facies represented by the thin interbedding of sand and clay in order to understand the conditions for their formation. The lake bottom morphology and stratigraphic boundaries beneath were mapped with a GPR with 150 MHz antenna unit and then made drill holes to verify GPR interpretations. The GPR measurements, verified by drilling, have vertical accuracy in the range of 0.12–0.36 m. We delineation specific GPR facies in the topmost part of varved clays and classified them as lacustrine turbidites by their structure and grain size. Further studies suggested that turbidites could be deposited by hyperpycnal flows during water discharge from glacial Lake Onega in the period 11.4–10.7 cal ka BP. The architectural implications of the turbidity current in the lake include localized layered sediments 0.5 m thick overlying an erosional surface, which contain unconformable sandy layers and plant debris. A GPR-based 3D model helped us to reconstruct the turbidity current direction, establish its confinement to a lake bottom depression, and consider the associated erosion processes. The near-bottom turbidity current passed through Lake Polevskoye from north to south, along with the bottom depression, and the eastern shore was eroded with a hydraulic jump. The hyperpycnal flows in the study site are associated probably with the last phase deglaciation of the terrain and a drop of the level of Lake Onega because these processes were the most prominent in recent geological history.
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The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Grant 18-17-00176 (50%, field works and data analysis) and the research project of the Institute of Geology of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences (50%, materials and equipment, samples analysis).
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Ryazantsev, P., Rodionov, A. & Subetto, D. Waterborne GPR mapping of stratigraphic boundaries and turbidite sediments beneath the bottom of Lake Polevskoye, Karelia, NW Russia. J Paleolimnol 66, 261–277 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-021-00205-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-021-00205-w