Inheritance of the recent vertical movements of the earth’s crust and relationship to the topography in Lithuania

Abstract

The relationship of the recent movements of the Earth’s crust with the geological features and relief was unraveled in Lithuania. The vertical movements show very close correlation to the recent relief, as established in three reference levelling lines +0.89, +0.89, and +0.55 that excludes the incidental relationship between the tectonic processes and the topography. Furthermore, the comparison of the geodetic data to the different geological parameters also indicates their close correlation. The gravity and magnetic fields, depths of the crystalline basement, thickness of the quaternary cover, thickness of the sedimentary cover, depths of the sub-Quaternary surface were analyzed in relation to the recent vertical movements. The MapInfo Professional GIS program was used to automatically identify the geological parameters. The highest correlation, besides to the aforementioned topography, was obtained for the gravity field (- 0.69) while it is +0.70 for the thickness of the sedimentary cover and +0.68 for the thickness of the Prequaternary sediments. The sub-Quaternary surface shows a relationship to the recent vertical movements (+0.44). The magnetic field does not show any consistent correlation. The obtained relationships to geological factors were incorporated into the model of the recent vertical movements that increase the consistency of the model.