The geomorphology of the Barents shelf off the Kola Peninsula

Abstract

The article examines in detail the submarine relief of the near‐shore shelf of the Barents Sea north of the Kola Peninsula. The major forms are dictated by fault systems in the bedrock striking northeast‐southwest and northwest‐southeast. Erosion, both fluvial and glacial, operating on these tectonic structures have resulted in an area of complexly dissected relief. Major glacial troughs extend across the shelf, continuing the alignments of the fiords of the Kola Peninsula coast. Elsewhere terminal moraine systems and well‐developed hummock‐and‐ridge relief are assumed to represent the well‐preserved depositional legacy of the last, maximal stage of the Valday glaciation.