Evolution of the Baltic Sea |
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Pleistocene |
Eemian Sea (130,000–115,000 BC) Ice sheets and seas (115,000–12,600 BC) |
Holocene |
Baltic Ice Lake (12,600–10,300 BC) Yoldia Sea (10,300–9,500 BC) Ancylus Lake (9,500–8,000 BC) Mastogloia Sea (8,000–7,500 BC) Littorina Sea (7,500–4,000 BC) Modern Baltic Sea (4,000 BC–present) |
The geology of the Baltic Sea is characterized by having areas located both at the Baltic Shield of the East European Craton and in the Danish-North German-Polish Caledonides. Historical geologists make a distinction between the current Baltic Sea depression, formed in the Cenozoic era, and the much older sedimentary basins whose sediments are preserved in the zone.[1] Although glacial erosion has contributed to shape the present depression, the Baltic trough is largely a depression of tectonic origin that existed long before the Quaternary glaciation.[1]