Ice Thrusting and Hummocking on the Shores of the Southern Baltic Sea's Coastal Lagoons

• Published in: Journal of coastal research Vol. 30; no. 3; pp. 456 - 464
• Main Author: Girjatowicz, Józef P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Fort Lauderdale The Coastal Education and Research Foundation 01-05-2014; Coastal Education and Research Foundation, Inc; Allen Press Inc
• Subjects: Breaking; Coastal; Coastal lagoons; Flatness; hummocking; Hydrology; Ice; ice conditions; Ice fields; Ice sheets; Ice thrusting; Lagoons; Land ice; Meteorology; RESEARCH PAPERS; Rubble; Shores; southern Baltic; Thrust; Water levels; Wind; Wind velocity; Baltic Sea; Finland; ANE, Baltic Sea; ANE, Europe, Vistula Lagoon; ANE, Europe, Szczecin Lagoon
• ISSN: 0749-0208; 1551-5036
• DOI: 10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-12-00032.1

Girjatowicz, J.P., 2014. Ice thrusting and hummocking on the shores of the southern Baltic Sea's coastal lagoons. This study concerns hydrological and meteorological conditions during which ice thrusting and hummocking events were observed on the shores of the Szczecin and Vistula Lagoons. The author documented four events of extensive (over distances longer than 100 m) onshore ice thrust: three thrusting events (1 March 1976, 14 January 1993, and 28 January 2003) in the Szczecin Lagoon and one (8 February 2011) in the Vistula Lagoon. The thrusting sheets of ice were usually 15 to 20 cm thick, and their thrust was associated with a very strong wind. The extensive ice thrusting was facilitated by the flatness of the shore and by a high water level. At low water levels and on steeper shores, the ice becomes hummocked. Ice hummocking close to the shore proceeds in three stages, the second stage being the most important: the sheet of ice coming from the windward side breaks up, under its own weight, on the leeward side to form ice rubble. At this stage, the size of the ensuing ice hummock is being determined. In 1955–2011, a total of 51 hummocking events were catalogued. Correlation and regression analyses applied to explore associations between the ice field thickness and the maximum wind speed, as well as between the maximum ice hummock height and the thickness of the ice field building it, showed the relationships to be highly significant (α = 0.001).