Provenance and paleoenvironmental context of the Late Pleistocene thin aeolian silt mantles in southwestern Poland: A widespread parent material for soils ...

• Main Authors: Waroszewski, Jaroslaw, Pietranik, Anna, Sprafke, Tobias, Kabała, Cezary, Frechen, Manfred, Jary, Zdzisław, Kot, Aleksandra, Tsukamoto, Sumiko, Meyer-Heintze, Simon, Krawczyk, Marcin, Łabaz, Beata, Schultz, Bernhard, Erban Kochergina, Yulia V.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021
• Subjects: GB Physical geography; GE Environmental Sciences; QE Geology; S Agriculture General; Fennoscandian; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.24451/arbor.21445; https://arbor.bfh.ch/21445/

Thin loess deposits are widespread soil parent materials and important archives for paleoenvironmental reconstruction. The origin of loess in SW Poland is attributed to the Great Odra Valley (GOV), following the general concept that large rivers play a major role in regional silt supply. Yet, the precise provenance (glacier sources and/or local rocks) of silts, possibly deflated from dry GOV braided riverbeds, is not clear. Our study of thin and thick loess mantles in SW Poland for the first time indicates the provenance of thin loess based on mineralogical (MLA-SEM) and isotopic analyses (143Nd/144Nd, 87Sr/86Sr). Luminescence ages of five localities point to thin loess mantle formation during and shortly (23.0 to 17.7 ka yr) after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Our isotopic data indicate that thin loess deposits in SW Poland are the mixtures of two main components - local Sudetic and Scandinavian, the latter delivered by the Fennoscandian ice sheet (FIS). Also, detailed analyses of heavy minerals show that ...