Correlation of Quaternary pedostratigraphy from western to eastern Europe

Pedostratigraphy allows correlation of Quaternary deposits over long distances. This paper correlates paleosols from Normandy in western Europe to the Ukraine in the east. At St. Pierre les Elbeuf (Normandy) the sequence includes four paleosols in loess ranging in age from Holsteinian to Eemian. They all represent full interglacial stages, as shown by the correlation with marine deposits in the Channel coast sections. Two of the interglacial paleosols are therefore Intra-Saalian. The Holsteinian (Elbeuf IV) is correlated with oceanic oxygen isotope stage 11. In the German Rhine area a sequence of Parabraunerde at Ariendorf covers the Holsteinian. The sediments below have been dated to 420 ka by the Ar/Ar method. In the Czech Republic investigations of paleosols and mollusc faunas in the loess have shown that pedocomplex PK III is Eemian in age, PKs IV and V are Intra-Saalian and PK VI is Holsteinian. In the loess and morainic areas of Poland a pedocomplex comprising sols lessivés was formed in the Eemian, and below the underlying Warta sediments the Lublin sol lessivé pedocomplex occurs on sediments of the Odra glaciation. The Lublin pedocomplex was formed in oxygen isotope stage 7 between 230 and 200 ka. The loess in the Ukraine contains pedocomplexes of chernozems formed in the Eemian and of sols lessivés developed under forest in the Kajdaki Interglacial between 240 and 170 ka (stage 7). As at Ariendorf, sediments of the Elsterian in the Ukraine have been dated to 420 ka.