The magnetic susceptibility record in the Polish and western Ukrainian loess-palaeosol sequences conditioned by palaeoclimate

Abstract

The magnetic susceptibility of loess-palaeosol sequences in southern Poland and western Ukraine varies mainly with the degree of decomposition of detrital magnetite grains conditioned by palaeoclimate. Relatively high susceptibility values were observed in the unweathered loess horizons and in accumulation horizons of the non-gleyed soils which contain relatively high amounts of paramagnetic fraction and pedogenic (?) magnetite. The susceptibility curves characteristic for Polish and western Ukrainian loess-palaeosol sequences may be directly correlated with oxygen-isotope fluctuations in deep-sea sediments. This correlation is more complex than that for the Chinese or Alaskan loess-palaeosol sequences. The major causes of the complexities are the relatively small thicknesses of the investigated sections (especially their older horizons) and the heterogeneity of geochemical processes that affected loess surface in the interglacial and interstadial times.