Considerations on the chronological and causal relationships between talus flatirons and palaeoclimatic changes in central and northeastern Spain

Abstract

Talus flatirons are relatively common landforms in arid and semiarid areas. They are frequent in the Duero, Tajo and Ebro Tertiary Basins in Spain. The generation of a flatiron requires the alternation of periods with a prevalence of accumulation processes followed by periods with a preponderance of erosion processes. In the three Tertiary basins considered here talus flatirons have been found in numerous places and up to five stages of slope evolution have been recognised in some locations. The second youngest stage (S 2) has been dated in several places in the Ebro and Duero Basins through 14C. The age of this stage ranges from 2529 ± 52 to 3590 ± 40 14C yBP. The third youngest stage (S 3) has yielded dates of 27,862 ± 444 radiocarbon years BP in the Ebro Basin, and 28,550 ± 130 14C yBP in the Duero Basin. S 4 has been dated in the Ebro Basin to 35,570 ± 490 14C yBP. The S 2 slope facets correspond to the Iron and Bronze Age Cold Stages. The S 3 and S 4 flatirons may be correlated with the Heinrich events H 3 and H 4. These dates may indicate that the accumulation periods on the slopes correspond to cold global events. The dates obtained for the stages S 3 and S 4 in the central and northeastern sectors of Spain and their good correlation with Heinrich events suggest that flatirons could be related to climatic sequences in the Upper Pleistocene and Holocene.