KLIFY WYBRZEŻA POBIEROWO-NIECHORZE (CLIFFS OF COASTLINE POBIEROWO-NIECHORZE)



Commune: Rewal (pow. gryficki, woj. zachodniopomorskie)

Framework element or context represented:
The coastal zone of the Baltic Sea.

Primary geological/geomorphological interest:
Cliff coastal landscape; sequences of glacial and postglacial sediments.

Comparative assessment justification:
Cliffs are exeptional localities demostrated the very active marine erosion facilitated by not resistance deposits.

Protection status and accessibility:
The Pobierowo-Trzesacz-Rewal-Śliwin cliffs are proposed to protection as monuments of inanimate nature. They are well accessible from the board of sea.

Character of site: Sea-coast.

Area: ca. 10 ha

Altitude: 1 - 20 m a.s.l.

Lithology: tills, silstones, claystones, silts, clays

Discipline: Geomorphology, Stratigraphy of Quaternary

Process Age: Quaternary, *all periods

Bedrock Age: Quaternary, *all periods




Description of primary interest:
The cliffs attain 17 m height are situated within the limits of the youngest, Vistulian (Weichselian) Glaciation. In the Rewal cliff profile of glacial drift can be distinguished the older complex comes from the Warta Glaciation and the younger from the Vistulian one. The two glacial horizons are separated by a series of glacifluvial and glacilimnic deposits. The bottom of the till of the last glaciation is generally situated at the present sea level. Contemporary processes of marine erosion, reinforced by degradation due to mass movements, have produced a cliff coast at the northern margin of the plateau abraded along its whole length (5.5 km). At the foot of the Rewal cliff grey and brown-grey subglacial tills can be found. The tills are not homogeneous, but contain numerous intercalations of sands, silts and clays as well as rafts of substratum rock (the Cretaceous claystones at Sliwin). Above them lies the series of glacifluvial and glacilimnic sand deposits whose thickness varies between 4-5 m near Niechorze to less than 20 cm in the Rewal and Trzęsacz profiles. These deposits are covered with brown and rust-coloured supraglacial till of a very high content of sand, turning to loamy sand at the top. Above the top of the glacial series, in local depressions without outlets (Niechorze and Sliwin), there are lacustrine and organic deposits dated by the radiocarbon method at between 12,900 and 2,760 BP, as well as aeolian deposits with a fossil soil. In the 17 m high and 1 km long Sliwin coastal cliff section, five lithological types of till have been distinguished, together with a glacifluvial series separating the two lower till units from the remaining sequence.

Literature:

BER A. 1999–Preliminary list of the Quaternary geosites in Northern and Central Poland, their age and geological position. Pol. Geol. Inst., Spec. Papers, 2: 77-85.     BER A. 2001–Ważne czwartorzędowe stanowiska geologiczne Polski północnej i środkowej (Polish only). In: W trosce o Ziemię. Księga ku czci Prof. S. Kozłowskiego: 224-239. KUL Lublin.     DOBRACKA E. 1983–Budowa geologiczna klifowego brzegu morskiego na odcinku Pobierowo-Trzesacz (Polish only). Przewod. LV Zjazdu PTG, 198-205. Szczecin, 15-17 wrzesnia 1983.     DOBRACKA E. 1995–Śliwin Bałtycki - characteristics and stratigraphy of Vistulian tills. XIV INQUA. Intern. Congr., 1: 1-129.      DOBRACKI R. 1999–Geology of cliff at the village Trzęsacz and shoreline development (English sum.). In: Ewolucja geosystemów nadmorskich południowego Bałtyku. Mater. konf.: 69-71. Poznań - Szczecin.     DOBRACKA E., DOBRACKI R. 1995–Geology and geodynamic of the cliff coast between Niechorze-Trzęsacz. In: Polish Coast: Past, Present and Future. Spec. Issue CERF, 22: 282-285.     DOBRACKA E., RUSZAŁA M. 1988–Charakterystyka geologiczna i geomorfologiczna strefy przymorskiej na odcinku Międzyzdroje-Trzęsacz-Niechorze (Polish only). Pr. Nauk. Pomorsko-Szczecińskie. 378: 17-52.     DOBRACKI R., RACINOWSKI R. 1989–Czwartorzędowe powierzchie morfogenetyczne wysoczyzny rejonu Rewala (Polish only). Stud. Mater. Ocean., 56: 151-161. Ossolineum. Wrocław.     KOPCZYNSKA-LAMPARSKA K., CIEŚLA A., SKOMPSKI S. 1984–Evolution of fossil lake basins of the Late Glacial and Holocene in the cliff near Niechorze. Quatern. Stud., 5: 39-58.