A Veiki moraine (

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

: Veikimorän) is a type of moraine found in northern Sweden,

Troms og Finnmark Troms og Finnmark (; sme, Romsa ja Finnmárku ; fkv, Tromssa ja Finmarkku; fi, Tromssa ja Finnmark, lit. Troms and Finnmark in English), is a county in northern Norway that was established on 1 January 2020 as the result of a regional reform. ...

in Norway, and parts of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. This moraine is characterized by forming a hummocky landscape of irregular moraine plateaus with elevated rims that are intercalated with ponds.

Gunnar Hoppe Ernst Gunnar Hoppe (1914-2005) was a Swedish geographer and Quaternary geologist. He became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1964. At ''Stockholms högskola'' (as Stockholm University was known before it was granted university ...

was the first to define the Veiki moraine concept in 1952, naming it after a locality consisting of two farms located about 10 kilometers north of

Gällivare Gällivare (; fi, Jällivaara; se, Jiellevárri or ; smj, Jiellevárre or ; fit, Jellivaara) is a locality and the seat of Gällivare Municipality in Norrbotten County, province of Lapland, Sweden with 8,449 inhabitants in 2010. The town wa ...

and

Malmberget Malmberget ("The Ore Mountain", Finnish and Meänkieli: ''Malmivaara'') is a locality and mining town situated in Gällivare Municipality, Norrbotten County, Sweden. It had 5,590 inhabitants in 2010, reduced to 927 by December 2020. It is situate ...

. To the east in

Finnish Lapland Lapland ( fi, Lappi ; se, Lappi; smn, Laapi; sv, Lappland; la, Lapponia, links=no) is the largest and northernmost region of Finland. The 21 municipalities in the region cooperate in a Regional Council. Lapland borders the region of North O ...

, a moraine type similar to Veiki moraine but smaller is known as Pulju moraine since 1967. The disposition of the Veiki moraines reflects the last glacier movements before an ice sheet retreats, and their final form is given by the melting of

dead-ice Dead ice is ice which, though part of a glacier or ice sheet, is no longer moving. When this melts it does so in situ, leaving behind a hummocky terrain known as dead-ice moraine which is produced by the deposition of glacio-fluvial sediments and ...

and the development and sedimentation of glacial lagoons between dead-ice cored rims during

interstadial Stadials and interstadials are phases dividing the Quaternary period, or the last 2.6 million years. Stadials are periods of colder climate while interstadials are periods of warmer climate. Each Quaternary climate phase is associated with a Ma ...

periods. In the case of the Veiki moraines of Sweden, the interstadial during which the lagoons sedimented is believed to have occurred in the early

Weichsel glaciation Weichsel may refer to: * Vistula river (Weichsel in German) * Weichselian glaciation * Peter Weichsel Peter M. Weichsel (born 1943) is an American professional bridge player from Encinitas, California. College and war years Early Weichsel star ...

. Thus, the Veiki moraines of Sweden are a

relict A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon. Biology A relict (or relic) is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas. Geology and geomorphology In geology, a r ...

landform that has largely survived later glacier action.

References

See also