A Baltic Ice Lake transgression in the southwestern Baltic: Evidence from Fakse Bugt, Denmark

Marine geological investigations including shallow seismic surveys and corings have been carried out in the shallow waters of Fakse Bugt (Bay) and Hjelm Bugt near to the island of Møn, Denmark. A combined sequence- and lithostratigraphy has been established and supplemented with biostratigraphic data and ¹⁴C datings. The data show that a sequence of varved glaciolacustrine sediments mapped east of Møn and in Hjelm Bugt, can be followed into the Arkona Basin. Correlation of these glaciolacustrine deposits with Baltic Ice Lake deposits in Blekinge, southern Sweden indicates the existence of a major lake basin: the initial Baltic Ice Lake. In Sweden the initial phase of the Baltic Ice Lake is dated to about 12,500 ¹⁴C years BP. In the Møn area transgression of the Baltic Ice Lake is indicated in the central part of Fakse Bugt by the development of a transgressive freshwater barrier beach ridge-lagoon system following the initial onlapping sedimentation of varved deposits. The freshwater coastal system was initiated during the Allerød stage and the final maximum transgression level (13 m below present sea level) was reached in the upper part of Younger Dryas just prior to the final drainage of the Baltic Ice Lake.