Reconstruction of the Dead (Grey) Dune evolution along the Curonian Spit, Southeastern Baltic

Abstract

One of the unique places in Europe in both environmental and cultural terms is the Curonian Spit – a massive sandy barrier separating the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. Straddling both the Lithuanian and the Russian parts, the spit is included into the UNESCO list of cultural heritage monuments. From the geological point of view, it is still an “alive” environment dominated by aeolian deposits. With the help of modern geophysical and geochronological techniques (ground-penetrating radar [GPR] surveys, LIDAR data, and radiocarbon [14C] dating), detailed investigations of paleosols were carried out in the Dead (Grey) Dunes massif located between Juodkrante and Pervalka settlements on the Lithuanian half of the Curonian Spit. Several soil-forming generations (phases) during 5800–4500, 3900–3100, 2600–2400, and from 1900 calendar years BP until the present have been distinguished. GPR surveys enabled a series of paleogeographic reconstructions of the massif for different time intervals of its evolutionary history.