Pleistocene Climates in Central Europe

At least 17 Interglacials after the Olduvai Event

Datos Bibliográficos

ID24088258
AutoresJulius Fink, George Kukla (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory), George J Kukla
Año1977
Volumen7
Número3
Páginas363-371
Fecha de publicación1977-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaQuaternary Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0033-5894 • E-ISSN: 1096-0287
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/0033-5894(77)90027-8
OpenAlexW1985315139
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas39
Referencias citadas6

At least 17 times during the past 1.7 million years, the deposition of loess containing characteristic cold-resistant gastropods was interrupted by the development of temperate interglacial forests. This conclusion was reached in a study of paleomagnetically dated fossiliferous loess sequences in Krems, Austria and Brno, Czechoslovakia. Sequences of windblown loess interlayered with hillwash loams and steppe and forest soils exposed in brickyards around Brno and Praha, Czechoslovakia, revealed eight major depositional cycles within the Brunhes paleomagnetic epoch. We now report nine additional cycles of late and middle Matuyama age bringing the total number of glacial-interglacial cycles to 17, which occurred after the end of the Olduvai. The cycles are separated by marklines , levels of abrupt environmental change correlative with the terminations in deep-sea sediments. They are the boundaries between the windblown loess containing cold-resistant snail assemblages and between the clayey originally decalcified soils, accompanied by warmth loving Helix and Banatica snail faunas of hardwood forests. Because the presence of temperate forests in northwestern and central Europe is instrumental in the definition of an interglacial, each markline represents a glacial-interglacial boundary and each cycle is a glacial-interglacial cycle.

Eemian · Glacial period · Interglacial · Loess · Paleomagnetism · Pleistocene · Stage (stratigraphy) · Stratotype · Geology · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Marine and environmental studies · Paleontology · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology