Three major pre-Quaternary glaciations have been recognised on King George Island. South Shetland Islands (West Antarctica). The oldest is the Melville Glaciation evidence by fossiferous glaciomarine sediments. Presence of numerous belemnites and Cretaceous calcareous nannoplankton suggested at first a late Cretaceous age. However three is an increasing evidence that these Cretaceous fossils are recycled and occur in late Tertiary (?Miocene) strata. Two glaciations separated with an interglacial have been recognised in a thick Pliocene sequence of laves and sediments. The older Polonez Glaciation is represented by continental-type tillites succeeded by glaciomarine sediments with Chlamys anderssoni fauna. Acidic volcanic activity, coarse-clastic sedimentation and subaerial erosion characterise a mid-Pliocene Wesele Interglacial succeeding the Polonez Glaciation. Andesitic laves and lahars cut by glacially eroded valleys with strongly diagenesized tillites represent the youngest, late-Pliocene Legru Glaciation.
Preliminary results of field investigations and analysis of air photos of the Tjörn Valley region (Wedel Jarlsberg Land, Spitsbergen) are presented. The youngest, Quaternary deposits and landforms were mapped. Reconstruction of the last advance and retreat of the Tjörndals Glacier is also described.
Geological and geomorphological studies in Kaffiöyra and Hermansenöya (Oscar II Land, northwestern Spitsbergen), completed with radiocarbon datings, indicated that the Early Vistulian (Weichselian) Glaciation of presumable regional significance, occupied the whole area. Marine transgression during and after deglaciation reached at least to 65 m a.s.l. Glacioisostatic uplift and marine regression in Kaffiöyra resulted in development of older raised beaches at 52-65 m a.s.l. During the Late Vistulian, Kaffiöyra was occupied partly by outlet glaciers (Aavatsmark, Elise and Andreas), while the Dahl Glacier covered Hermansenöya. Extents of these glaciers were much greater than during the Little Ice Age. Marine transgression during deglaciation reached to 46-48 m a.s.l. at about 12-11.5 ka B.P. During glacioisostatic emergence at 11.5-9 ka B.P., ten younger raised marine beaches were formed in Kaffiöyra. Traces of a probable glacial episode at 3-2.5 ka B.P. were noted in forefields of the Aavatsmark and the Elise glaciers only. In forefields of all glaciers in Kaffiöyra there are deposits and landforms formed during glacial advances of the Little Ice Age and the following continuous retreat. The Aavatsmark Glacier was the only one to indicate surge type readvances at that time.
The present paper contains the results of geomorphological investigations carried out by the author during the llnd Polar Expedition of the Scientific Society of the Students of the Department of Geography and Regional Studies, Warsaw University, to the northwest part of Nordenskiöld Land (West Spitsbergen) in the summer of 1980. The present elaboration discusses the glacial forms and deposits which arose during previous stays of the glacier on this area. Particular attention was paid to the disposition of erratics, which permitted the determination of the directions of the transgression of the young Quaternary glaciations.