Abstract
The Pleistocene sequence of the Kleszczów Graben, central Poland, is located in a brown coal quarry 8 km long and 4 km wide. It contains ten separate organic horizons, in part, stacked one above another and, in part, correlated by reference to associated inorganic units using heavy minerals and gravel petrography. Three of the organic horizons represent interglacials: Ferdynandovian, Mazovian (Holsteinian) and Eemian. Others represent interstadial or periglacial deposits. The Tertiary/Quaternary boundary is recorded at the site by Reuverian C and prae-Tiglian biostratigraphy occurring in a single section. A major hiatus exists above the prae-Tiglian and Lower Pleistocene and Cromerian deposits are absent. Glacial deposits are represented by three Elsterian tills, five Saalian tills and glaciofluvial and glaciolacustrine deposits. The Czyżów Formation lies between the Elsterian and Saalian deposits and contains at least two interglacials, the Ferdynandovian and Mazovian, and several interstadial units without glacial intervening deposits. The Lower Saalian (Odranian = Drenthe) deposits are separated from the Middle Saalian (Wartanian 1) by fluvial sands and organic deposits of the Pilica interstadial. The Middle (Wartanian 1) and Upper Saalian (Wartanian 2) also may be separated by an interstadial palaeosol. The evidence from the Kleszczów Graben, supported by other central European Quaternary sequences, suggest that only four glaciations occurred within the region during the Middle Pleistocene, and that these glaciations were separated by long periods with a complex climate ranging from temperate to periglacial.
Published Version
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