ABSTRACT
The most remarkable geological event of the Pleistocene in Belarus was the repeated incursion of ice sheets. The first glaciation that can be identified in Belarus is the Narev Stage. This glaciation deposited a complex of glacial, glaciofluvial and glaciolacustrine sediments. Various processes operated during the Narev Stage in the extraglacial zone of southernmost Belarus. Here glacial loading triggered tectonic movements. The Berezina Stage ice sheet covered almost the entire area of Belarus. During the Dnieper Stage, the Eastern European Plain, including Belarus was covered by the thickest of all the Pleistocene ice sheets. The glacial dynamics of the Dnieper Stage in southern Belarus are discussed because the main orographic features in the Polessie area, which formed the basis for the development of the modem rivers, lakes and peatlands, were formed by the ice sheet. The structure of the ice sheet was rather complex. There were five ice streams within Belarus: the Niemen, Vileika, Disna, Dvina and Lovat ice streams.
