Chronology of the Quaternary profile Zeuchfeld in Saxony-Anhalt / Germany: A preliminary luminescence dating study

Sebastian Kreutzer, Tobias Lauer, Sascha Meszner, Matthias Krbetschek, Dominik Faust, Markus Fuchs

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Climatic signals are considered as well preserved in loess records. To assess their significance in a local and global context a reliable numerical chronology is needed. Luminescence dating provides an established dating method on natural mineral grains of quartz and feldspar by measuring the last time of the daylight exposure. For the field trip of the 37th meeting of the German working group on geomorphology to the Saxony-Anhalt loess belt, the upper part of the Quaternary profile Zeuchfeld has been reinvestigated. The profile is well known for its sandur (Zeuchfeld Sandur) situated at the base of the profile, assumed to be of Late Saalian age (MIS 6). Here, OSL quartz age estimates for the overlying loess deposits from the last glacial-interglacial cycle are reported. Furthermore, the underlying sandur has been sampled for conventional SAR dating on quartz and IR-RF dating on potassium rich feldspar. The OSL age estimates have been determined for three commonly used quartz grain size fractions (coarse, middle and fine grain). The results suggest at least two phases of loess deposition and preservation around 70 ka and 30 ka to 22 ka confirmed by previous assumptions based on field work and recent pedo- and lithostratigraphic correlation. In contrast, the quartz SAR and the IR-RF measurements from the underlying sandur yield a substantially older (pre-Saalian) age. The reasons for the assumed age overestimation and the details of the luminescence dating results are presented and discussed
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5-26
Number of pages22
JournalZeitschrift für Geomorphologie, Supplementary Issues
Volume58
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01 Feb 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Loess
  • luminescence dating
  • saalian glaciation
  • saxony-anhalt/Germany
  • weichselian glaciation
  • zeuchfeld sandur

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