Abstract This paper presents new bio-, litho- and chronostratigraphical evidence from two adjacent sediment sequences of the Tõdva and Saku basins, northern Estonia that refine the age estimate of the Palivere ice-marginal zone and the deglaciation history of Estonia. Previous palynological studies demonstrated the presence of late-glacial sediments in the area; however, those sections were not dated, and their ages were poorly constrained. New accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14 C dates show that sedimentation in the Tõdva basin started at approximately 13 200 cal yr BP. Therefore, because the studied sites are located at the distal part of this zone, we infer that this age represents the minimum timing of the ice retreat from the Palivere ice-marginal zone. Keywords (GeoRef Thesaurus, AGI): ice-marginal features, deglaciation, chronology, mires, sediments, stratigraphy, microfossils, absolute age, C-14, Quaternary, Palivere, Tõdva, Estonia Corresponding author email: saarse@gi.ee Editorial handling: Pertti Sarala 1. Introduction The reconstruction of the deglaciation history of Estonia is based on the recognition of five ice-mar- ginal zones, of which the Palivere ice marginal is the youngest (Raukas, 1986). The so-called Palive- re belt in northern and western Estonia is a comp- lex of glacial, glaciofluvial and glaciolacustrine de- Bulletin of the Geological Society of Finland, Vol. 84, 2012, pp 21–31 On the deglaciation chronology of the Palivere ice-marginal zone, northern Estonia posits related to large deltas of ice-dammed lakes (Raukas, 1992; Kalm & Kadastik, 2001). Howe- ver, the timing of the formation of the Palivere ice- marginal zone remains contentious due to insuffi- cient direct datings and considerable deviations in the available age determinations. Dates of glacio- ^ ^ LEILI SAARSE 1 , ATKO HEINSALU 1 , SIIM VESKI 1 , LEELI AMON 1 AND ANDREJUS GAIDAMAVICIUS 2 1 Institute of Geology at Tallinn University of Technology, Ehitajate tee 5, 19086 Tallinn, Estonia 2 Institute of Geology & Geography, T. Ševcenkos str. 13, LT-03223 Vilnius, Lithuania