300px, An undulating hilly landscape in Falkenberg Municipality, Halland.">Halland.html" ;"title="Falkenberg Municipality, Halland">Falkenberg Municipality, Halland. file:Dagsås_-_KMB_-_16000700002822.jpg">300px, An undulating hilly landscape in Varberg Municipality, Halland.">Halland.html" ;"title="Varberg Municipality, Halland">Varberg Municipality, Halland. The Sub-Mesozoic hilly peneplains or Sub-Mesozoic hilly relief is a landscape in Scandinavia made up of undulating hills and joint valleys and occasional kaolinized bedrock in valley bottoms. The landscape formed in the Mesozoic Era and was eventually drowned by the sea during the

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campa ...

transgression and covered by a thick blanket of

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock formed by the cementation (geology), cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or de ...

s. Later erosion of the cover rocks partly re-exposed this landscape. During the Quaternary epoch the re-exposed Mesozoic hilly relief escaped major glacier erosion being only surficially scoured in parts. The Sub-Mesozoic hilly relief formed starting from a peneplain formed in the

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years, from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.902 Mya. It is the s ...

and

Triassic The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...

. Remnants of this peneplain can be traced as a tilted summit accordance in the Swedish West Coast. This would indicated that Paleozoic strata that covered much of Fennoscandia elsewhere had been locally uplifted and eroded prior to the formation of the Sub-Mesozoic hilly relief. The Sub-Mesozoic hilly peneplains covers a contiguous zone along western and southern rims of the South Swedish Dome. This zone includes most of

Bohuslän Bohuslän () is a Provinces of Sweden, Swedish province in Götaland, on the northernmost part of the country's west coast. It is bordered by Dalsland to the northeast, Västergötland to the southeast, the Skagerrak arm of the North Sea to the ...

Halland Halland () is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden (''landskap''), on the western coast of Götaland, southern Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Småland, Skåne, Scania and the sea of Kattegat. Until 1645 and the Second Treaty of Br ...

and

Blekinge Blekinge () is one of the traditional Swedish provinces (), situated in the southern coast of the geographic region of Götaland, in southern Sweden. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea. It is the country's second-smallest provin ...

as well as parts of

Västergötland Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden. Vä ...

and

Scania Scania ( ), also known by its native name of Skåne (), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces () of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous w ...

. In parts this surface and unconformity makes up an undulating hilly relief, while in other locations like Blekinge and northern Halland it is a joint valley landscape. In Bohuslän the Mesozoic

weathering Weathering is the deterioration of rocks, soils and minerals (as well as wood and artificial materials) through contact with water, atmospheric gases, sunlight, and biological organisms. It occurs '' in situ'' (on-site, with little or no move ...

associated with hilly relief is likely also responsible for creating the numerous small rock basins carved into Bohus granite that characterize the coast.

References

{{Geology of Fennoscandia Landforms of Blekinge County Landforms of Halland County Landforms of Skåne County Landforms of Västra Götaland County Mesozoic Europe Plains of Norway Plains of Sweden Unconformities Weathering landforms