Ancient buried valleys in the city of Tallinn and adjacent area

The distribution, morphology, fillings, and origin of buried valleys are discussed. The direction of the valleys varies from NW to NE. Within the Viru-Harju Plateau the valleys have a more or less symmetric profile, but asymmetric profiles are dominating in the pre-klint area. They are mainly filled with glacial (till), glaciofluvial (sand, gravel, and pebbles), glacio­lacustrine (varved clay), and marine (fine-grained sand) deposits. The Tallinn valley with its tributary valleys (Saku and Sausti) and fore-klint branches (Harku, Lilleküla, and Kadriorg) looks like a river system. The fore-klint branches extend over 20 km in the Gulf of Finland. They are probably tributaries of the ancient river Pra-Neva. Most likely, the formation of valleys was continuous, starting from pre-Quaternary river erosion, and was sculptured by variable processes during the ice ages and influenced by flowing water during the interglacial periods.