Late pleistocene evolution of periglacial and glacial relief in the Karkonosze Mountains. New hypotheses and research perspectives

Abstract

The occurrence of periglacial landforms in the most elevated part of the Karkonosze has been recognized within glacial cirques and on slopes of residual hills. Some of these landforms have not been previously documented. The inventory of periglacial landforms includes protalus ramparts, rock glaciers, nivation hollows, cryoplanation terraces and solifluction lobes. Their position in relation to other landscape facets, and to cirques and moraine ridges in particular, allows one to identify phases of geomorphic development at the turn of the Pleistocene and to correlate these tentatively with stratigraphic units of the late Pleistocene. The presented hypothesis of landscape evolution calls for detailed geomorphological research, in which quantitative techniques, GIS-based modeling and dating would be widely implemented