Brdy Highland: A Landscape Shaped in the Periglacial Zone of Quaternary Glacials

Abstract

Brdy Highland represents the highest upland in the central part of the Czech Republic outside the mountain ranges distributed in the peripheral parts and along the borders of the country. Because of the existence of a military training ground in its highest part, Brdy Highland is the least known of all the Czech mountains and highlands. Termination of military use of the area by January 2016 opened the area to the public. Quartz-dominated Cambrian conglomerates and sandstones form the highest parts of the highland. The specific lithology of these sedimentary rocks produced extremely infertile, low pH soils. Because of the low fertility, the area was always almost unpopulated, forested and served as source of timber, charcoal and water for mining and ore processing activities in areas at the foot of the highland. Compared to higher mountains distributed along the borders of the Czech Republic, Brdy Highland receives less precipitation and fluvial processes have had a less pronounced effect on its morphology. The relics of pre-Quaternary planated surface forming the summit of the highland were dissected into structural-erosional ridges mainly by processes operating in the periglacial zone of Quaternary glacials . Solifluction on the gentle slopes and frost disintegration of the rock faces were the main processes forming abundant periglacial landforms. Fossil cryoplanation terraces and solifluction lobes , rocks of the tor type, frost-riven cliffs, block fields and block streams are abundant. The possible existence of other fossil features such as patterned ground , nivation hollows or possible rock glaciers requires further study.