Sedimentary archives of the Late Glacial–Early Holocene, Tersky Coast of the White Sea (Varzuga Estuary case study)

Sedimentary paleoarchives of the Late- and Postglacial sediments accumulated in the Nizhnevarugskaya tectonic depression and on its western flank were studied on the Tersky coast of the White Sea using lithostratigraphic analysis, radiocarbon dating, and GPR profiling. The consecutive succession of sedimentary setting from glacial through glaciolacustrine to marine has been established. For the first time on the White Sea coast the facial variability of basin sediments filling a large tectonic depression was revealed not only in the outcrops, but also laterally. The glaciolacustrine sediments represented by rhythmically bedded deposits were 
traced up to a height of 41 m a. s. l. Glaciolacustrine sediments documented at the bottom of the depression accumulated in a large proglacial lake, while on its side sediments accumulated in small depressions at the top of the till. At the bottom of the depression, glaciolacustrine rhythmites are overlain above erosional surface by Holocene marine sediments consisting of two facies. The lower facie is represented by fine-grained cross-bedded sands with shells, which were deposited in the coastal shallow water at the beginning of the Holocene Tapes transgression (starting from ~9.4 cal. kyr BP). The relative sea level at that time was  9–10 m below the modern.

The upper facie consists of mixed-grained layers of sand interlayered with gravel-pebble beds deposited later than 7.8 cal. kyr BP in the breakwater zone during the lowering of the relative sea level. According to existing geological and geomorphological data, the accumulation of marine sands at 43–22 m a. s. l. in the Nizhnevarzugskaya depression correlates with the Late Glacial-Early Holocene transgressive-regressive rhythm, and below 22 m a. s. l. with the Holocene transgression.

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