Biostratigraphy of the last glacial period in Europe

Abstract

The European Early Weichselian (= Early Würmian) is characterized by two long and relatively warm interstadials — Brörup and Odderade — which can be traced and correlated with certainty across large parts of Europe. The Amersfoort interstadial, described earlier from the Netherlands, has been included in the Brörup and represents the older part of it. Both great interstadials were forested in north-west, central and southern Europe: in the north, conifer forests prevailed giving way, towards the south, to deciduous forests. The climatic gradient was distinctly steeper, mainly due to southward displacement of the Gulf Stream. The two great interstadials are synchronous with the isotopic stages 5a and 5c in the deep sea cores. Subsequent to Eemian, Brörup and Odderade, and from within the context of a continuous series, two additional and clearly delimited interstadials have been recorded in a new standard profile from Oerel, NW Germany. These are now described as the ‘Oerel’ and ‘Glinde’ interstadials. They were not forested and belong to the early Pleni-Weichselian. The lower one (Oerel) can probably be correlated with the 3rd Weichselian (Würmian) interstadial in southern central Europe (Ognon II, Dürnten, Samerberg 3), while the upper one (Glinde) has so far no known counterpart. For the younger Pleni-Glacial, it is assumed that there was a long phase during which it was not too cold. The formation of humic layers during this phase took place at different times, partly due to local edaphic factors, so that the relevant 14C-dates show a wide scatter. The Hengelo and Denekamp interstadials represent only slight ameliorations which facilitated the formation of shrub tundra and can be recorded in certain regions only.