Geomorphological map of the White Sea floor

Abstract

The marine geomorphological survey of the White Sea floor using echo sounding revealed landforms different in origin and structure. Large glacial landforms which encircle the deep basin suggest an ice mass filling the central depression for a long time. Traces of glacial erosion are distinct in the Kandalaksha Bay, central depression and near the Karelian coast, the ice moved from NW. Various glacial and glaciofluvial hills and depressions are mapped on the floor of the Onega Bay, as well as shoals and ice-polished bedrock knobs. On the Dvina Bay floor glacial till was deposited and later covered with the alluvium af the Severnaya Dvina river, which built the delta front and numerous islands within the limits of the delta. Within the strait connecting the White Sea and the Barents Sea the floor topography is modelled by tidal currents.