The Middle Noteć Valley—The Landscape of an Ice-Marginal Valley and Its Surroundings

Pradolinas (also called ice-marginal valleys, ice-marginal spillwaysSpillway (ice-marginal valley, pradolina), ice-marginal streamways, or Urstromtäler) are very wide (up to 25 km) and long (up to several hundred km) valleys oriented parallel to the former margin of an ice sheetIce sheet. The best-known pradolinas in the European Lowland, related to Pleistocene Glaciations, are: Wrocław-Magdeburg-Bremen, Głogów-Baruth-Hamburg, Warsaw-Poznań-Berlin-Hamburg, and Toruń-Eberswalde-Hamburg ones, all running from east to west. The main cause of formation of pradolinas was the general terrain gradient in the European Lowland that directed drainage towards the north and west. Extraglacial rivers met waters generated by melting ice masses and jointly drained towards the west in the direction of the North Sea during subsequent deglaciationDeglaciation stages, because the northern direction was blocked by standstill ice margin and associated sediments. After the margin of the ice sheetIce sheet retreated, fluvialFluvial system was successively extended towards the north. Pradolinas are a characteristic element of the contemporary lowland landscape and often used by modern-day rivers. This chapter focuses on the Toruń-Eberswalde Pradolina, which is characterised by prominent morphological expression, not only evident from digital elevation models and remote sensing data but also from the ground level. We describe the most characteristic elements of the morphology of a pradolina and its surroundings based on an example of the Middle Noteć River Valley (central Poland), which include a diversity of smaller-scale features such as terraces, erosional incisions into valley sides, dune fields, and anthropogenic modifications of the river system.