Abstract
ABSTRACTWhile there are numerous thick loess–palaeosol sequences preserved across the Carpathian Basin, well dated sites that provide terrestrial palaeoenvironmental records extending beyond last glacial–interglacial cycle are scarce. Robust chronologies are essential for correlations of loess with other long‐term Quaternary records and to further understanding of the palaeoenvironment and climate of this important region beyond the last 125 ka. Here a new geochronology based on 13 post‐infrared infrared stimulated luminescence ages focused on the lower part of the loess–palaeosol sequence at Erdut is presented. The results show that the lower part of the Erdut profile spans the penultimate glacial cycle (MIS 7 to MIS 5). The considerable sediments overlaying the investigated part of the profile suggest that this section spans two glacial cycles, rather than the previously suggested one. The most likely source of the discrepancy is the use of uncorrected infrared stimulated luminescence signal, which can cause age underestimation if not accounted for. This study demonstrates the need to revisit sites such as Erdut, re‐date them using updated measurement protocols, and update existing palaeoenvironmental interpretations.
Highlights
Loess–palaeosol sequences are important terrestrial archives often preserving near‐continuous and high‐resolution sedimentary records
Central European loess deposits, especially along the Danube River, are thick, with a number of sites extending beyond the last glacial–interglacial cycle, including in Bulgaria (Jordanova et al, 2008), Croatia (Galović et al, 2009; Wacha and Frechen, 2011), Hungary (Thiel et al, 2014; Újvári et al, 2014), Romania (Balescu et al, 2010; Vasiliniuc et al, 2012), and Serbia (Schmidt et al, 2010; Murray et al, 2014)
Thirteen unmodelled and modelled pIRIR225 luminescence ages from Units V to IX are presented in Figs 8 and 9, Table 3 and Supplementary Table S2
Summary
Loess–palaeosol sequences are important terrestrial archives often preserving near‐continuous and high‐resolution sedimentary records. In terms of capacity to generate long palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment signals in central and southeastern Europe, loess archives are only matched by a very limited number of lacustrine records, e.g. Lake Ohrid, Macedonia (Lacey et al, 2016), Tenaghi Philippon, Greece (Tzedakis et al, 2006), or Lake Ioannina, Greece (Roucoux et al, 2011) Despite their potential as palaeoarchives, loess–palaeosol sequences often suffer from a lack of robust, high‐resolution, absolute chronologies. In theory, infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) dating of feldspar provides the potential to date 300–500‐ka‐old material (Thomsen et al, 2011), because of feldspars’ higher saturation limit They provide the opportunity to construct chronologies for loess profiles extending beyond the last interglacial period After a 250 °C preheat, IR50 and pIRIRelev signals were measured for 200 s, followed by the measurement of a test
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