LOESSFEST'09 | Aug. 31st – Sept. 3rd, 2009 |Novi Sad-Serbia
Complex Study of the Loess-Paleosoil Sequence at Süttő, Hungary - An Attempt to Discover the Paleoenvironmental Changes of the Past 130 KA
Horváth, E.1, Bradák, B.1, Novothny, Á1,2, Frechen, M.2
1Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of Geography and Geology, Department of Physical Geography, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C. H-1117 Budapest, Hungary
2Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics (LIAG), Geochronology and Isotope Hydrology, Stilleweg 2, D-30655 Hannover, Germany
The generalised stratigraphy of Hungary was developed for the interglacial/ glacial records using some similar soil characteristics and features for the correlation of different sites. The description of the loess profiles mainly focused on lithological, sedimentological and pedological parameters, such as intercalated palaeosoil, tephra layers, loess and loess derivatives, but only in several works appears the claim of complex paloenvironmental reconstruction.
The 20 m thick loess-paleosoil sequence of Süttő is an excellent site for a complex investigation. It is situated on the top a travertine complex, located in northern Hungary, next to the right bank of the River Danube. The active work in the travertine quarry allows of investigation of loess, sandy loess intercalated by different kind of paleosoils with different thickness. In the main wall in different profiles a thick pedocomplex, including a reddish B-horizon covered by a chernozem- like palaeosoil, two thinner brownish steppe-like soils and two greyish layered horizons and a weak humus-rich horizon were studied. Samples were taken for grain size and chemical analyses in every 2 centimetres, continuously for magnetic susceptibility, paleomagnetic. Luminescence, AMS, AAR samples and blocks for paleosoil micromorphological investigations were taken from specific horizons.
Based on the preliminary studies it is possible to state the presence of the last interglacial (MIS 5e) paleosoil, which is a brown forest-like soil with visible clay migration, and paleosoils of younger age, as well.
The underlying travertine provided an independent age control by uraniumseries (230Th/234U) dating correlating the travertine from below the loess with MIS 7 (8)