New geochronology of the Stalać section at the southern limit of European loess occurrence through pIR50IR290 dating

Abstract

A new geochronology was established for the Stala´c loess-paleosol section in central Serbia. The section is located
in the Central Balkan, at the transition zone between Atlantic, continental and Mediterranean climate regimes and
is therefore potentially extraordinary sensitive to past and present climatic changes. Especially in the context of
early human migration, this region is not intensively studied and has potential to contribute valuable information.
This is the reason why it is investigated in the frame of the CRC 806 “Our Way to Europe” project. This project
focuses on the climatic changes and their influence on the dispersal of anatomically modern human (AMH). For
the loess-paleosol sequence exposed in a quarry in Stala´c, a multi-proxy approach combining geochemical and
sedimentological analysis and luminescence dating is applied. This contribution focusses on the luminescence
investigations.
The luminescence characteristics of six samples were analyzed using the optically stimulated luminescence
signal of quartz by means of the single-aliquot-regenerative-dose (SAR) protocol and the infrared stimulated
signal of feldspar (within polymineral samples) by means of the post-infrared-infrared (pIRIR) protocol. While the
fine quartz grain (4-11m) samples show a preheat dependency of equivalent doses that makes them unsuitable for
dating, the polymineral fine grain samples measured by pIR50IR290 behave satisfactorily: plateaus within a first
IR stimulation temperature test, good dose recovery ratios, low residual doses, high precision and low uncertainty
support the established age chronology ranging from 35.2  1.8 ka to 168  9 ka. A tephra within the MIS 6/L2
loess layer was bracket dated, and combining these ages suggests an age between ca. 140 and 175 ka (2).
Based on the presented results we introduce a new geochronology of the Stala´c section, indicating that the
previously suggested correlative stratigraphy (Kosti´c and Proti´c, 2000) requires significant revision. By using
luminescence dating we demonstrate that the sediments found are older than previously proposed. This reveals
that environmental conditions during the last two interglacials (MIS 7 and MIS 5) were different, but it also shows
that MIS 5 and MIS 3 had relatively similar conditions.
Reference
Kosti´c, N., and Proti´c, N. (2000). Pedology and mineralogy of loess profiles at Kapela-Batajnica and Stala´c,
Serbia. CATENA 41, 217–227.

Resources

• EGU_Stalac_JB_2016.pdf

Bibliography

Bösken, J., Obreht, I., Klasen, N., Zeeden, C., Marković, S., Hambach, U., Lehmkuhl, F. (2016): New geochronology of the Stalać section at the southern limit of European loess occurrence through pIR50IR290 dating. EGU General Assembly 2016, 17.-22.4. 2016, Vienna, Austria