Current issue: 58(4)
The article describes the characteristics and emergence and development of four peatlands in middle Ostrobothnia, Finland. In addition, the age of the Rahkaneva and Kurmunneva peatlands was determined and their relationship. The different layers of the peat and the plant relics they contain are represented.
The age determination was based on different layers of the peat that contain different fossils of pollen and pieces of different plant species. The height of the layers was measured. It seems that Rahkaneva has grown into its current area during a warm and dry period in Subboreal.
The study about the formation of hummock ridges on the peatlands is based on research conducted between years 1915-1919 in Pyhäjoki area in middle Ostrobothnia area in Western Finland, in Kuusamo and Kuolajärvi in north-east Finland, and in different parts of Finnish and partly also in Norwegian Lapland.
The hummock ridges and the “rimpis” are evolutionary in close connection with each other. Hence the sliding of peat plays an important role in the formation of hammock ridges. The formation of regularly positioned hummock ridges requires sloping surface of the moor, where the water flow or the movement of the peat goes in one direction. Formation of hummock ridges is determined by climatic factors, particularly by the floods and other weather conditions in spring time.
Conclusion of the study is that the theories up to now about the formation of hummock ridges have not understood the phenomenon completely. The different morphological factors affect by themselves or together by the formation of regular groupings of the hummock ridges.
The article contains an abstract (Zusammenfassung) in German.