150 EUROPE/Holocene Figure Recent vertical movement of the Earth’s crust In the northern part the map is dominated by the extensive, north east south west stretched uplift of Fennoscandia with maximum values of >8 mm year The subsidence of a belt surrounding the Baltic Shield is less differentiated (From Harff J, Frischbutter A, Lampe R, and Meyer M (2001) Sea level change in the Baltic Sea: interrelation of climatic and geological processes In: Gerhard LC, Harrison WE, and Hanson BM (eds.) Geological perspectives of global climate change Tulsa, Oklahoma, American Association of Petroleum Geologists in collaboration with the Kansas Geological Survey and the AAPG Division of Environmental Geosciences: 231 250 Reprinted by permission of the AAPG whose permission is required for further use.) sea-level changes and isostatic uplift or subsidence, partly modified by tectonic movements, produced considerable changes in the geography of Europe during the Holocene Depending on the geographic position of the affected area, large relative sea-level changes (positive or negative ones) have occurred (Figure 7) These changes are particularly obvious where large intracontinental basins like the recent Baltic Sea area were affected At the beginning of the Holocene, large parts of the Baltic Basin were filled with freshwater from the Baltic Ice Lake which was fed mainly by meltwater from a large glaciated area in North and north-eastern Europe ă resound (between The only important outlet in the O the recent Danish island Sealand and southern Sweden) was too narrow to serve as a sufficient spillway between the Baltic Ice Lake and the North Sea The global sea-level was about 25 metres lower than in the Baltic Ice Lake When the Scandinavian inland ice started to retreat from southern Sweden, a spillway through the central Swedish Depression was opened As a dramatic process, half of the recent Baltic Sea’s water volume drained into the Atlantic Ocean via the Kattegat and North Sea This drainage took no longer than a few years and had an enormous impact along the former shores of the Baltic Ice Lake Large areas previously covered by water became dry land, and southern Scandinavia became directly connected to central Europe Saline waters of the Kattegat could enter the Baltic Basin for a time-span of a few hundred years, a stage of the Baltic Sea’s development known as the Yoldia Sea, a phase which is dated from 11 570 to 10 700 years BP (Figure 8) The connection between the Yoldia Sea and the Kattegat through central Sweden was located in a rapidly uplifting region Therefore, the connection closed at about 10 700 years BP and a newly dammed-up freshwater lake was formed within the Baltic Basin It