The geocomplex of closed depressions near Zduńska Wola

Basic surface features of the Łask Interfluve near Zduńska Wola originated during the Wartanian ice-sheet areal deglaciation. The ice-sheet waning resulted in formation of groups of crevasse landforms such as kame plateaux, kame hillocks, kame terraces and melt-out depressions. The post-Wartanian morphogenesis increased diversity of the relief by rejuvenation of most of buried valleys, by cutting new valleys and raising the interfluve surface with aeolian sheets and dunes. Sand and silt were deposited in melt-out depressions. The depressions had initially functioned as closed depressions and had formed a local base level. They were incorporated into a valley network presumably at the end of the Vistulian glaciation. Blocks of dead ice melted gradually and it has led to the formation of flattenings in the melt-out depressions bottoms. The flattenings are 2-3 m high and have short gentle slopes. These slopes and the slopes of the melt-out depressions are cut with dells and basin-like valleys. Few of the cuttings continue their direction as barely perceptible, shallow flat-floored valleys drained by perennial or intermittent watercourses. In the Holocene eight types of geocomplexes with stable matter and energy structure were formed, as a result od natural processes. Man's influence has led to diversification of the environment which can be represented by 19 types of present-day geocomplexes. The 19 types are characteristic of all the melt-out depressions in the environs of Zduńska Wola, but they display a unique mosaic in each depression. It is noteworthy that the depressions function as groups of homolithic geocomplexes. Man-made changes in the depressions result from agricultural land useArtykuł przedstawia typologię i funkcjonowanie geokompleksów zagłębień wytopiskowych na tle rozwoju paleogeograficznego zachodniego fragmentu Wysoczyzny Laskiej w okolicach Zduńskiej Woli. Uwzględniono w nim naturalne procesy przyrodnicze i antropizację środowiska związaną z użytkowaniem rolniczym