Age and sedimentary record of inland eolian sediments in Lithuania, NE European Sand Belt

Abstract

We present a study based on four inland eolian locations in Eastern, Central and Southeastern Lithuania belonging to the northeastern part of the 'European Sand Belt' (ESB). Although there have been several previous studies of the ESB, this north-eastern extension has not been investigated before in any detail. The sedimentary structural-textural features are investigated and a chronology was derived using optically stimulated luminescence on both quartz and feldspar. The sedimentary structures and the rounding and surface characteristics of the quartz grains argue for a predominance of eolian transport. Additionally, some structural alternations and a significant contribution of non-eolian grains are interpreted as inherited local glacial/glaciofluvial-bearing lithologies. Three main (glaciolacustrine-) eolian phases are distinguished based on the position in the landscape and the luminescence ages: (1) An older eolian series around 15 to 16 ka, possibly correlated with the cold GS-2a event according to the GRIP stratigraphy, and (2) a younger eolian series around 14.0 ka, possibly representing the GI-1d and 1c events. The older eolian series is underlain by (3) a glaciolacustrine-eolian series for which the period of deposition remains uncertain due to the significant discrepancy between the ages based on quartz and feldspar.

Macro- and micro-scale study and chronology of Late Weichselian aeolian sediments in Estonia, north-eastern European Sand Belt

“…Considering similar hydrogeological conditions for all the Varesmetsa and Iisaku samples, a lifetime average burial water content of 10 ± 4% is used. This is similar to the value reported previously from the nearby Iisaku dunes (Kalińska-Nartiša et al 2015b). The total dose rates are between 1.4 and 1.9 Gy/ ka.…”

“…2 and 1 ka, respectively, the earliest wind activity in southern Lithuania (ca. 14 ka; Table 2; Kalińska-Nartiša et al 2015b). The following pulse of wind events at around 13-13.5 ka was synchronous in northern Lithuania, eastern Latvia and northern Estonia.…”

The north-eastern aeolian ‘European Sand Belt’ as potential record of environmental changes: A case study from Eastern Latvia and Southern Estonia

“…For example, the key sites from Western Ukraine , Western Belarus (Stančikaitė et al, 2011) and European Russia (Drenova et al, 1997) allow to establish the aeolian sedimentary succession between the Weichselian and Holocene. This time frame is also largely valid for aeolian dunes in the northeast of Estonia (KalinskaNartiša et al, 2015a;Raukas and Hüüt, 1988) and in Lithuania (Kaliń ska-Nartiša et al, 2015b;Molodkov and Bitinas, 2006). Only a single study on aeolian deposits using luminescence ages exists for Latvia (Nartišs et al, 2009); this gave ages of between 6.4 and 11.9 ka.…”

Quartz grain features in modern glacial and proglacial environments: A microscopic study from the Russell Glacier, southwest Greenland

“…Consequently, more aeolian-induced grains occur in the 1.0-2.0 mm in the sediments of the embryonic and echo dunes, which gained the strongest aeolian abrasion, possibly due to changes in transportation, as observed in some aeolian palaeoenvironments (Dzierwa and Mycielska-Dowgiałło 2003;Mycielska-Dowgiałło and Woronko 2004). It is also known that such aeolian grains are practically absent in the palaeosandur sediments (Górska-Zabielska 2015; Woronko et al 2015b); however, occasionally occur in localities where longer-lasting aeolian processes under periglacial conditions took place (Kalińska-Nartiša et al 2015;Woronko et al 2015a). This latter is likely a case at the Russell Glacier setting.…”