Stratigraphic and facies problems of Eo-pleistocene and Meso-pleistocene deposits in Poland

Abstract

Following the resolutions of the INQUA Congress held in 1932, the Pleistocene was subdivided into the following stages: the Lower, i.e., the Eo-Pleistocene; the Middle, i.e., the Meso-Pleistocene; and the Upper, i.e., the Neo-Pleistocene. The Eo-Pleistocene in Poland consists of fluviatile and lacustrine deposits. The fluviatile deposits are gravels and sands of Carpathian origin from the Vistula River basin, and of Sudetic origin in the upper Odra (Oder) River basin. Several sections show that the fluviatile deposits, with detritus derived from the southern part of Scandinavia, form the lowermost part of the Eo-Pleistocene in northwest Poland. They are related to the first and second Glaciation, the Pretiglian (Preicenian, Danubian) and the Günz. The lacustrine deposits, clays and silts, indicate some break in the supply of coarse material. They were studied by Szafer (1954) at Mizerna, on the Dunajec River, where they yield plant fossils poorer in Pliocene species than in the lower part of the section. They show a moderate to warm climate, characteristic of the oldest interglacial described as the Tiglian Interglacial. The Meso-Pleistocene in Poland consists of fluviatile, fluvioglacial, glacial and lacustrine deposits. The clays and sands of the Cromer Interglacial have been best recognized in the section at Mizerna, on the Dunajec River (Szafer, 1954). During the Cromer Interglacial, tectonic movements caused an intensification of erosional processes over a large part of the area. The base-level of the Eo-Pleistocene rivers in central Poland migrated to the area of the present-day Baltic Sea. The glaciation, known in Poland as the South-Polish or Cracovian Glaciation, is related to that of the Mindel-Elster of Germany and of the Alps, and the Oka Glaciation of the East European lowland. The deposits of this glaciation are of greatest extent in Poland and reach the northern slopes of the Sudetes and the Carpathians. Deposits of the Mazovian Interglacial (in western Europe called the Holstein, and in the east the Likhvino) are extremely important for the Pleistocene stratigraphy.