Lithostratigraphy of loesses and silty sediments in the Western Roztocze, southeastern Poland

Abstract

A regional stratigraphic pattern was prepared for the Pleistocene period from 530 to 10 ka BP. Development of loesses and "non-loess" silty sediments was presented against the background of palaeogeographic conditions characterized by processes of pedogenesis, erosion and denudation, weathering type and extents of the Scandinavian ice sheets. Loesses were accumulated mostly in pleniglacials of the specific glaciation periods under conditions of arid subarctic climate, while silty sediments, which were referred to as having aeolian-wash colluvial origin, formed in the earlier phase of glaciations, under conditions of a polar moist climate.