14 Die Küste, 74 ICCE (2008), 1-17 
coast). Rügen Island as well as the Fischland-Darss peninsula are excellent examples where 
several small islands, consisting of a core built up of Pleistocene deposits, were connected by 
beach ridges. These ridges are built up of material which is eroded from cliff sections and 
offshore abrasion platforms: Then it is transported by longshore currents (Bellec et al., 
2008). Rügen, the largest German island, was formed by these cliff falls and abrasions. 
In response to glacio-isostatic rebound, the northern part of the Baltic Sea is still domi 
nated by an uplift relative to the present sea level, with rates up to 9 mm/year in the Bothnian 
Bay (MÖRNER, 1977; Harff et ah, 2005, see Fig. 9). In the southern part, subsidence rates of 
up to 2 mm/year occur (Meyer 2002; Meyer and Harff, 2005). Such subsidence generally 
causes erosion and coastal retreat along the entire southern Baltic Sea coastline, because these 
areas consist of an alternation of cliffs and lowlands, built up of soft glacial and postglacial 
deposits. 
Based upon the modelling of large scale palaeo-coastline changes since the onset of the 
Littorina transgression 7,900 14 C years BP, the sea level in the northern part has dropped 
significantly, in some areas by more than 200 m (Cato, 2004). This process has resulted in a 
regression, by far out-weighing the southern transgression. According to Meyer and Harff 
(2005) the spatial extent of the Baltic Sea has diminished by approximately 30 % since then, 
whilst the volume has decreased from 47,000 km 3 to 22,000 km 3 , or by 47 %. 
Recent vertical movement 
(mm/y) 
8.0 - 9.0 
7.0- 8.0 
H 6.0 - 7.0 
5.0- 6.0 
4.0- 5.0 
3.0- 4.0 
Z0- 3.0 
1.0- 2.0 
0.0- 1.0 
-1.0- 0.0 
H -2.0--1.0 
| -3.0 - -2.0 
-4.0 - -3.0 
■■ -5.0- -4.0 
-6.0 - 5.0 
-7.0 - -8.0 
Fig. 10: Present isostatic movements around the Baltic Sea Basin (Harff et al., 2001)