The Late Pleistocene loess-palaeosol sequence of Middle Belgium

Abstract

In Belgium, two areas show extended Late Pleistocene loess cover: the Hesbaye close to Liège and the Haine Basin around Mons. For decades, correlation between both areas remained problematic. Here we will show how, by way of complementary approaches, the records of the Haine and the Hesbaye could be inserted into a high resolution pedosedimentary sequence encompassing the major part of the Late Pleistocene and reproducible at the scale of the Belgian loess belt. Based on the pedosedimentary and palaeoenvironmental signatures of the Belgian sequence, comparisons are proposed with high resolution loess sequences of Eastern Europe and Central Siberia. They give access to well documented palynological data for the first part of the Late Pleistocene and to a strong climatic record on loess framed between 45 and 10 ka BP by long series of radiocarbon dates on charcoal and wood remains. The conjunction of these complementary loess records has further given way to a consistent proxy-correlation scheme linking a high resolution continental climatic record to the Greenland ice sequence.