ABSTRACT
The till stratigraphy of northern Finland or Finnish Lapland has been the subject of study for many years. The earliest descriptions of superimposed till beds of different ages date back to 1908. The till stratigraphy of Finnish Lapland is based on ice flow, or glaciation, stages. The most complete example of the stratigraphy is visible in the open pit of Rautuvaara Mine, where a section 22 m high and 700 m long is available. The till beds are easy to distinguish from one another since they are separated by thick, uniform deposits of sorted sediments. The correlation of the stratigraphy with the last interglacial/glacial events in northwestern Europe is compatible with all the data and seems to be justified. If the recent correlations of the pre-Eemian glacial and non-glacial sediments in Lapland with the Saalian and the Holsteinian, and probably even the Elsterian, are correct, this implies that the Pleistocene stratigraphy of Lapland covers some 300,000 years.
