Stratigraphy and chronology of the periphery of the Scandinavian ice sheet at the foot of the Ukrainian Carpathians

Abstract The article presents the results of research on the formation conditions and the age of glaciogenic deposits left by the Scandinavian ice sheet in the Eastern Carpathian Foreland, in its part drained by the Dniester River and its tributaries (Black Sea basin). These deposits (till, erratics, glaciolacustrine and glaciofluvial sediments), preserved only in some places and occurring in the range of altitudes defined by terrace VI (Early Pleistocene) and terrace V (Middle Pleistocene), are the southernmost traces of the ice sheet in Europe. They are underlain by fluvial deposits and overlain by loess deposits, and locally occur as intraloess layers. The following research methods were used: geomorphological mapping, sedimentological, lithological, micromorphological, palaeopedological, and palaeontological analyses, as well as luminescence dating. The obtained results allowed a reconstruction to be made of the main stages of morphogenesis and the style of the ice-sheet advance at its maximum extent, defined as the Sambor Phase. The area was glaciated during MIS 12 (Elsterian II = Sanian 2 = Okanian), as indicated by the occurrence of a complete Middle/Upper Pleistocene loess–palaeosol sequence. The oldest palaeosol (S4), i.e. Sokal (=Mazovian = Zavadivka) soil that developed directly on the glaciogenic deposits or loess L5 is correlated with the Holsteinian (=Likhvinian) Interglacial (MIS 11).