THE PALIMPSEST GLACIAL LANDSCAPE IN NORTHWESTERN SWEDEN-Late Weichselian deglaciation landforms and traces of older west-centered ice sheets

The glacial landscape in northwestern Sweden is a palimpsest of landforms created by several ice sheets. Using crosscutting relationships and other morphological criteria, the glacial and glaciofluvial landforms formed during the Late Weichselian recession were discriminated and mapped separate from landforms from older glacial events. The geographical pattern of the last deglaciation could thus be reconstructed on the basis of "young" landforms only. The Late Weichselian ice sheet was over large areas continuously cold based. Only in limited zones were thawed-bed conditions reached during the deglaciation. The older landforms all reflect ice flow and meltwater drainage from smaller ice sheets related to the mountain chain. A marginal position, characterized by lateral moraines, of such an ice sheet was discovered along the eastern rim of the mountain chain. This marginal zone is interpreted to represent a temporary halt in the recession of an older west-centered ice sheet, possibly during isotope stage 5b.