Identification of a circular structure in eastern Pomerania (northern Poland) – a hypothesis of its origin

Abstract

The pos si ble ex is tence of a cir cu lar struc ture in the Kooecierzyna re gion (north ern Po land) was sug gested in two pa pers in the 1980s. The cur rent stud ies were aimed at ver i fy ing this hy poth e sis. Anal y sis of a dig i tal ter rain model of the pre-Qua ter nary sur face re lief as well as of the pres ent ter rain re vealed the ex is tence of a large struc ture of ca. 50 km in di am e ter. Its ge om etry was es tab lished based on a model of the Neo gene/Plio cene sur face and iden ti fi able lin ea ments. Its char ac ter is tic fea ture is the pres ence of rim-like forms, an in ter nal pla teau, and a "high" in the cen tre. The struc ture is es ti mated to date from be fore the Pleis to cene. The cir cu lar struc ture has been re shaped by gla cial ero sion and ac cu mu la tion, and is now bur ied un der Qua ter nary de pos its. The ex is tence of the Kooecierzyna cir cu lar struc ture was con firmed by con ducted stud ies, but my hypoth e sis of an im pact or i gin is still un cer tain and needs to be con firmed by fu ture re search.