Origin of large landforms at the NW Russian Plain

Abstract

Forms of the present-day topography and those of the Pre-Quaternary bedrock surface are identified and sorted according to their size (largest, large, medium etc.) in order to specify the morphology of the SW Russian Plain. An analysis of most important factors controlling the relief formation (such as basement and sedimentary mantle structures, neotectonics, Pre-Quaternary erosion and sedimentation, glacial erosion and accumulation during Pleistocene) as well as some quantitative indices allow to distinguish several types of large and very large landforms at the NW Russian Plain, as follows: tectonic; tectonic-erosional, mostly due to fluvial erosion, tectonic-erosional, mostly due to- glacial erosion, tectonic-accumulative, built-up, with erosional socle preconditioned by tectonics; built-up, with erosional socle, built-up, formed by glacial erosion.