The buried Odra River beneath the Baltic Sea: unraveling a 15,000-year-old mystery

20 March 2026, by ch

In her bachelor’s thesis, Maryse C. Schmidt combined marine geophysical imaging methods to identify and map the actual course of the former Oder River on the present-day seafloor of the Baltic Sea east of the island of Rügen. The aim was to analyze its morphology and sedimentary infill in response to sea-level rise over the past 15,000 years. This research has now been published in the renowned scientific journal BOREAS Wiley.

Rising sea levels driven by climate change are continuously reshaping coastal landscapes. Reconstructing past sea-level rise also provides valuable insights for the future.

Publishing a peer-reviewed paper based on a bachelor’s thesis is a special achievement. Congratulations to Maryse Schmidt on this publication.

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