The distinctive shapes of some kame ridges in the Łódź region of Central Poland

In the central part of the Rawka lobe of the Warta stage ice sheet of the Middle Polish glaciation (Saalian), areal déglaciation took place in the vicinity of Łódź. This is indicated by the numerous kames here, among which ridge forms are conspicuous. Some of the ridges which are situated on the slopes of river valleys and on the slopes terrain depression possess unusual shapes which resemble „tongues" and „paws". These forms merge gently with the adjacent elevated upland, whereas their distal parts are sharply defined and may lie as much as several decametres above their bases. „Kame tongues" and „karne paws" are built from paraglaciolacustrine and glaciofluvial deposits which accumulated in water bodies between dead ice blocks during the final phases of the ice sheet downwasting. The distinctive shapes of the landforms result from the varying thickness of the dead ice masses: thinner on the elevations and significantly thicker in terrain depressions (mainly in large, subglacial pre-Wartian valleys). These characteristic kame ridges demonstrate that the more elevated parts of the subglacial surface had been ice free for a long time before the dead ice blocks eventually disappeared from the terrain depressions.