Sedimentary environments of the Late Pleistocene terrestial deposits at Kolodiiv (East Carpathian Foreland, Ukraine) in the light of elementary and aggregate grain-size composition

Abstract

The results of grain-size analysis of silt deposits from the Kolodiiv site are presented. The seven profiles examined are situated on the terrace of the Sivka River, along a ca. 1 km stretch of its right bank. They comprise Wartanian alluvial sands and gravels overlain by Eemian deposits and Vistulian loess. The average results of aggregate and elementary analyses of selected stratigraphic units, standard grain-size indices, and some aggregation indices are shown. The results obtained indicate that initial loess material deposited in Kolodiiv was generally not differentiated. Only the youngest palaeosols and the younger loess deposits are enriched in silt, which may suggest lower velocities of wind transporting the material or a change in source material (e.g. from sandy-silty flood sediments to clayey lacustrine sediments). Some changes in source material, transportation force or redeposition of material (e.g. by slope processes) may be deduced from the variable skewness and flatness of the grain-size distribution, both aggregate and dispersion.