LOESSFEST'09 | Aug. 31st – Sept. 3rd, 2009 |Novi Sad-Serbia
Loess-Paleosol Sequences of Titel Loess Plateau – The Complete Archive of the Last Five Glacial Cycles in Vojvodina (N Serbia)
Jovanović, M.1, Hambach, U.2, Gaudenyi, T.1, Marković, S.B.1
1Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Managment, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
2Chair of Geomorphology, University of Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany
The Titel loess plateau (TLP) is unique loess “island” with an area of 90 km2, at the confluence of Tisza and Danube rivers. Steep loess bluffs, up to 55 m high, confine it to the north and east while its western and southern parts reveal more gentle morphology.
According to the thickness and accessibility of LPSS three different sub-profiles were chosen: a) Big Gully profile which is characterized by high accumulation rate during last three glacial cycles; b) Feudvar Gully - two palaeosol and three loess layers were sampled. BAG tephra horizon was used for inter-profile correlation with c) Dukatar Gully, where samples were taken from the oldest loess and palaeosol horizons.
In total of 1.226 samples were taken at 5-cm intervals and pressed into the plastic boxes. Magnetic susceptibility measurements were carried out using a KLY-3 in PUM laboratory in March/April 2007 and March 2008.
Very high accumulation rate during the last 5 glacials is one of the most significant characteristics of TLP. Moreover, soils are well developed and represent the most distinctive interglacials couplet in SE Carpathian basin.
The TLP LPSSs indicate a succession of interglacial environmental changes from semi-humid subtropical environments, to temperate forest, and finally towards landscapes with typical steppe soils.
Three tephra layers were recognized, which stressed importance of TLP for chronostratigraphic correlation. Here, we would like to emphasize usability of frequency dependent magnetic susceptibility as tool for tephra layers recognition. That is especially important in case of cryptotephra occurrence in bottom of V-L5.
The LPSSs formed during the last 5 glacial–interglacial cycles provide one of the most complete European continental paleoclimatic records for the last 620 ky. They represent even more detailed and complete palaeoarchive than Batajnica section. The distinct and characteristic MS record at TLP provides important and significant similarities to the enviromagnetic records observed at other Eurasian loess sections. This opens possibilities to extend the temporal and spatial correlation across the Eurasian loess belt from China via Central Asia to the middle Danube Basin.