veiki moraine

{{short description|Type of moraine}}

A Veiki moraine (Swedish: Veikimorän) is a type of moraine found in northern Sweden, Finnmark in Norway,{{cite journal |last=Sørbel |first=Leif |date=2003 |title=Veikimorener i Finnmark, Nord-Norge |journal=Norwegian Journal of Geography |language=no|publisher=Routledge |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=125–127 }} and parts of Canada.{{cite journal |last=Lagerbäck |first=Robert |date=1988 |title=The Veiki moraines in northern Sweden‐widespread evidence of an Early Weichselian deglaciation |journal=Boreas |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=469–486 }} This moraine is characterized by forming a hummocky landscape of irregular moraine plateaus with elevated rims that are intercalated with ponds.{{cite journal |last=Hoppe |first=Gunnar |author-link=Gunnar Hoppe |date=1957 |title=Problems of Glacial Morphology and the Ice Age |journal=Geografiska Annaler |publisher=Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=1–18 }} Gunnar Hoppe was the first to define the Veiki moraine concept in 1952, naming it after a locality consisting of two farms located about 10 kilometers north of Gällivare and Malmberget.{{cite journal |last=Hoppe |first=Gunnar |author-link=Gunnar Hoppe |date=1952 |title=Hummocky moraine regions with special reference to the interior of Norrbotten |journal=Geografiska Annaler |publisher=Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography |volume=33 |pages=1–72 }} To the east in Finnish Lapland, a moraine type similar to Veiki moraine but smaller is known as a Pulju moraine since 1967.{{cite journal |last=Kujansuu|first=Raimo |date=1967 |title=On the deglaciation of western Finnish Lapland |journal=Bulletin de la Commission Géologique de Finlande |volume=232 |pages=56–57 }}

The disposition of the Veiki moraines reflects the last glacier movements before an ice sheet retreats, and their final form is given by the melting of dead ice and the development and sedimentation of glacial lagoons between dead-ice-cored rims during interstadial periods. In the case of the Veiki moraines of Sweden, the interstadial during which the lagoons sedimented is believed to have occurred in the early Weichsel glaciation. Thus, the Veiki moraines of Sweden are a relict landform that has largely survived later glacier action.