Geomorphological Diversity of Poland—Major Controls and Main Geomorphological Regions

The chapter provides an overview of morphological diversity of Poland. Although predominantly a lowland country, Poland is remarkably diverse in terms of origin and characteristics of relief, which reflects different timescales of relief development in different parts of the country, various geological controls, climatic variability and variable intensity of human impactHuman impact. At the large scale, its territory can be divided into six main geomorphological belts stretching from west to east. Going from the south, these are mountains, fore-mountain basins and hilly lands, uplands, subdued lowlands of ‘old glacial reliefOld glacial relief’, hilly lakelands of ‘young glacial relief’Young glacial relief (young glacial landscape) and the coastal belt along the Baltic SeaBaltic Sea. Mountains belong to the VariscanVariscan system in the west (the Sudetes) and the Alpine system in the east (the Carpathians), whereas uplands are mainly supported by sedimentary formations ranging in age from the Palaeozoic to the Miocene. Within the Carpathians the only high-mountain area in Poland, the Tatra Mountains, is located. In the Pleistocene nearly the entire area of Poland was covered by the Scandinavian ice sheetIce sheet, but the extents of ice-sheet advances varied during different cold phases. Glacial morphology is most evident in the northern part of the country (lakelands), where glaciation was as recent as 23–15 ka. The Polish coast is cut in poorly consolidated deposits and typified by long sandy beachesBeach and, locally, low cliffs. Human impactHuman impact is ubiquitous and morphology of some areas, especially of miningMining districts, bears very strong anthropic signatures.