A multi-proxy analysis of two loess-paleosol sequences in the Northern Harz Foreland

Abstract

Within the second phase of the “Collaborative Research Centre 806 (CRC806) – Our Way to Europe – Culture-Environment Interaction and Human Mobility in the Late Quaternary” two loess-paleosol sections in the northern Harz foreland have been investigated. The region is part of the European loess belt, which closes up to the north with the northern loess boundary where Weichselian silt and sand sized aeolian sediments interlock. To the south the loess belt is limited by central German uplands. Here the continuous loess cover disperses into separated loess basins. In comparison to popular and intensively studied sections, e.g. along the Rhine river, investigations in the northern Harz foreland on loess-paleosol sequences have been sparse so far. In 2006 REINECKE created an overview of Pleistocene landscape developments in the northern Harz foreland by investigating mainly terrace sequences and loess sections. Due to improvements of research methods over the last ten years, the two loess-paleosol sequences Hecklingen and Zilly have been reinvestigated in 2014. Aiming towards a better understanding of the paleoenvironmental conditions during the Weichselian in an area close to the Scandinavian ice sheet, new methods are used for grain size, magnetic susceptibility, geochemical (XRF, CNS) and color measurements. Further, published and so far unpublished OSL-data are being reevaluated. Results of the investigated physical and chemical sediment properties will be presented.

Resources

Bibliography

Krauß, L., Zens, J., Zeeden, C., Lehmkuhl, F. (2015): A multi-proxy analysis of two loess-paleosol sequences in the Northern Harz Foreland. Deutsche Bodenkundliche Gesellschaft