Evolution of the River Rega valley near Łobez in Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene

The River Rega valley near Łobez was formed by a rapid icesheet degradation. Evolution of valleys of rivers (including the Rega) discharging into the Baltic Sea began in late Plenivistulian; it was then that glacifluvial outwash levels and kame terraces were formed. At that time, the water was flowing southward and further on towards the south-west, in a broad channel. That period was terminated at the turn of Plenivistulian and late Vistulian, when the discharge became directed northwards. The net result was the onset of the formation of the modern Rega valley system, buried chunks of dead ice still in the process of melting. Dead ice melt-down proceeded at the fastest rate during Allerod. It was then that deposits of organic matter were formed, the deposits being most probably remnants of fossil soil. Plant macro-fossils and remains of freshwater malacofauna point to a sporadic occurrence of sediments of a shallow water body which existed on the melt-down site of a huge chunk of dead ice. The thickness of the overlaying mineral cover (up to 6 m) is indicative of a fast sediment accretion rate. Sandy and silty sediments were deposited in synchrony with the dead ice melting. As a result, today’s Rega valley features traces of small melt-water lakes as well as fossil sedimentation basins (underlain by the Allerod organic level), rapidly filled with fluvial and fluviolimnic sediments. Since the Preboreal, the Rega has been flowing along a meandering channel.