Loess chronology of the Last Interglacial/Glacial cycle in Bohemia and Moravia, Czech Republic

Combined infrared and green light stimulated luminescence and thermoluminescence dating applied to the extensively studied Bohemian and Moravian loess/palaeosol sequences from Sedlec Suchdol, Kutna Hora, Dolni Vestonice, Lechovice, Modrice, Bulhary and Cerveny Kopec provides a reliable chronological framework for the last interglacial/glacial cycle. Based on this luminescence dating study a new chronology is proposed for the last interglacial/glacial loess/palaeosol sequences from the Czech Republic. IRSL and TL dating suggests that the Bt horizon of a truncated brown forest soil (lower PK III) formed during the Last Interglacial, equivalent to Oxygen Isotope Substage 5e. The upper chernozem of PKII belongs to oxygen isotope stage 3, if the combined IRSL and TL age estimates are taken into account, although from geological estimates an age range within OI Substage 5a is most likely. The Upper Weichselian loess accumulated at a very high rate. Owing to the high accumulation rate there is no time difference in sedimentation ages between the tundra gley palaeosols above PK I, which include the Upper Weichselian sediments in Central Europe. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.