Late Quaternary Climate Variations Reflected in Baltic Sea Sediments - The Baltic Sea Basin - page 103

Fig. 5.3 Relief of the Baltic Sea basin ( http://www.io-warnemuende.de/profile-of-the-baltic-
sea.html ) and work area
Suspended matter transported through the Stolpe Channel is being deposited and
forms a sediment body of the “Stolpe Foredelta” where the channel merges with
the Eastern Gotland Basin. Within the centre of the Eastern Gotland Basin pelagic
deposition dominates the sediment accumulation.
The current system is described in Fig. 5.4 . The illustration of Fig. 5.4 shows the
current system as a result of numerical modelling and as paleoreconstruction after
sediment proxies. Figure 5.4a illustrates the current field within the Baltic Proper at
a water depth of 60 m. The arrows stand for mean current vectors from modelling
results 1960-2005. The MOM3 code (Pacanowski and Griffies 2000 ) was used for
modelling. The resolution of the grid is 3 nm. The source of the meteorological
forcing is the era40 data file (Uppala et al. 2005 ) . The counterclockwise direction
of the currents is clear as well as the decreasing velocity when the water leaves
the Stolpe Channel. It is noticeable that north of the “Stolpe Mouth” the currents
describe a separate gyre within the southern part of the Eastern Gotland Basin. The
“delta” sediments are accumulated within the centre of this north-south elongated
gyre. Emelyanov ( 2006 ) reconstructed the late Holocene near-bottom currents after
stratigraphic thickness analysis of post-Littorina sediments (Fig. 5.4b ) . The similar-
ity of the current pattern in Fig. 5.4a , b is obvious and supports the assumption that
the recent current system has been stable for a longer time period.