The Rogovaya Moraine in the Pechora Lowland, northeastern European Russia, is a c. 100 km long and narrow lobe trending NE-SW. The crest of the lateral moraine descends only about 50 m along these 100 km. We have investigated a 50 m high Seyda River bluff located close to the northeastern flank of the Rogovaya lobe. In the lowermost part the section is a clayey, matrix-supported till, rich in gravel and boulders. Overlying this till is an interglacial unit dated to MIS 7 by OSL and U/Th, consisting of an up to 1 m thick peat, as well as sand and silt. The peat contains sticks of wood, and has a large lateral extent. It is overlain by fluvial sand dated to с 150 kyr by OSL. Both the peat and the sand are glaciotectonically deformed, most likely by the same glacier that deposited the overlying 15-22 m thick till.

This till is a brown-grey matrix-supported diamicton, sandier than the lower till and not so boulder-rich. In the lower part fabric indicates ice-flow from NW, turning towards NE in the uppermost part. Above the till is fluvial gravel and sand which are folded and sheared from NE. No till is found above, but there are boulders at the surface implying a former till. In a ravine a few hundred meters aside from the section we found undeformed fluvial sand at slightly higher levels and we consider it stratigraphically above the last mentioned till and folded sand.

The undeformed sand is dated to с 145 kyr, implying that all units between this and the interglacial sediments belong to the same ice age. Due to its thickness we consider that the upper till is a part of the Rogovaya lateral moraine, although there is no ridge at the site. The gravel and sand accumulated in a meltwater river close to the ice margin. Subsequently the glacier overrode the glaciofluvial sediments and deformed them. This means that the Rogovaya Moraine was deposited by the Barents-Kara ice sheet during the Late Saalian с 145-150 kyr ago. The Rogovaya Moraine is further north cut by the Harbei Moraine dated to about 90 kyr.

Reference:

Henriksen M., Mangerud J., Matiouchkov A., Svendsen J.-I. A late Saalian ice advance near Vorkuta, Arctic Russia. Correlation of Pleistocene Events in the Russian North. International Workshop Abstracts. 4-6 December 2006. Saint-Petersburg, 2006, p. 42.