Abstract
The Erdmannshöhle is located at the NE margin of the Dinkelberg plateau in SW Germany. With a length of 2315 m, it is the longest cave in the deep open karst area near the village of Hasel. Three main cave levels developed in moderately SW-dipping, thinly bedded and fractured limestones of the Upper Muschelkalk (Triassic). The youngest cave level containing the cave stream is still active. Eighteen samples for U/Th dating were taken from the oldest and the intermediate cave levels. At the oldest cave level, the ages range from 162 to 110 ka, indicating speleothem growth starting in the middle Beringen Glaciation and terminating at the end of the Eem Interglacial. At the intermediate cave level, the ages range from 100 to 12 ka, i.e. early Birrfeld Glaciation to Younger Dryas Stadial. The age dating shows that speleothem growth did not cease completely during long periods of harsh climate conditions during the Beringen and Birrfeld glaciations and that permafrost terminating speleogenesis and speleothem growth was thus probably established only temporarily over relatively short periods. A conceptual model for the Middle Pleistocene to Holocene development of the Erdmannshöhle is presented within the framework of modern Quaternary lithostratigraphy. This model facilitates a first correlation of the cave evolution with the Middle to Late Pleistocene depositional record in the Möhlinerfeld, which is a key area for modern Quaternary lithostratigraphy in Switzerland and Southern Germany. Thus, speleological and Quaternary research, both based on a regional scale data compilation, complement one another with respect to the timing of events and the landscape evolution during the Quaternary and Late Neogene.
Highlights
Caves are an almost perfect archive for the conservation of information concerning archaeology, palaeontology, hydrology, climate, tectonics and palaeoseismology
We attempt to more precisely capture the formation and depositional history of the Erdmannshöhle in terms of absolute age and stratigraphy and present a detailed description of the cave evolution under regional constraints. This allows for the correlation of cave levels and cave deposits of the Erdmannshöhle with the terrace deposits in the Hochrhein valley, which is a key area for Pleistocene stratigraphy in Switzerland and Southern Germany (Penck and Brückner 1901-09, Hantke 1978-1983, Graf 2009)
4.3 Results The most reliable U/Th dating results listed in Table 2 are illustrated in Fig. 10 together with the Marine Isotope Stages [MIS] (Martinson et al 1987; Lisiecki and Raymo 2005) and the Middle to Late Pleistocene lithostratigraphy (Keller and Krayss 2010, Preusser et al 2011)
Summary
Caves are an almost perfect archive for the conservation of information concerning archaeology, palaeontology, hydrology, climate, tectonics and palaeoseismology. The main reason is that if a cave passage becomes inactive, cave sediments are protected against erosion and weathering for several thousands and up to millions of years This favourable circumstance has allowed for the reconstruction of early human history by archaeological excavations, research on fossil remains by palaeontologists to reconstruct Pleistocene fauna Based on progress in absolute age dating using the well-established radiocarbon and U/Th methods in addition to modern age dating methods with cosmogenic nuclides, it is possible to accurately date a wide range of organic remains and sediments. These methods facilitate a correlation with Pleistocene deposits, in particular the glaciofluvial terraces in the large river valleys that form the base for the Pleistocene lithostratigraphy (Keller and Krayss 2010, Preusser et al 2011)
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