New evidence for vegetation development and timing of Upper Middle Pleistocene interglacials in Northern Germany and tentative correlations

Abstract

This paper discusses palynological investigations and new 230Th/U ages of two Upper Middle Pleistocene sequences of the formerly glaciated Northern German Lowlands, the Reinsdorf sequence at the open mine of Schöningen, Lower Saxony and the North Friesian site of Leck. New 230Th/U ages of late interglacial organic layers of the archaeological lake margin site of the Reinsdorf sequence ranging from 280 to 343 ka give evidence for a correlation of those deposits with Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 9. Near and long distance correlation by means of palynological investigations of Holsteinian and related interglacial continental deposits and their correlation with the MIS is discussed. Isotopic investigations of uranium and thorium from organic-rich mud deposits at core Leck 8 point to an open-system, and age estimation by 230Th/U-dating remains therefore unclear. Compared to other Upper Middle Pleistocene warm periods in North Germany, correlations of the Leck-Interglacial with the Holsteinian and the Reinsdorf interglacial can be excluded. In comparison with sediment successions from the Nachtigall section at Höxter and the section Ottostraße at Göttingen, the Leck-Interglacial is discussed as a correlative of a warm temperate phase of MIS 7.