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Luminescence Dating of Sediments from the Luthern Valley, Central Switzerland, and Implications for the Chronology of the Last Glacial Cycle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Frank Preusser ,
Benjamin U. Müller  and
Christian Schlüchter
Frank Preusser
Affiliation:
Geologisches Institut, Universität zu Köln, Zülpicher Strasse 49 a, D-50674 Cologne, Germany; and Geologisches Institut, Universität Bern, Baltzerstrasse 1, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
Benjamin U. Müller
Affiliation:
Geologisches Institut, Universität Bern, Baltzerstrasse 1, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
Christian Schlüchter
Affiliation:
Geologisches Institut, Universität Bern, Baltzerstrasse 1, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
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Abstract

The advancing glaciers of the last glacial maximum either eroded or deeply buried older sediments in the Swiss Alpine Foreland. However, part of the Swiss Plateau was not covered by ice and is therefore an excellent area for investigating climate and environmental change during the Upper Pleistocene. Repeated fluvial sequences can be studied in several pits along the Luthern Valley. The chronological framework is based on lithostratigraphy, pollen analysis, U/Th dating, and recently, heavy mineral analysis and luminescence dating. The oldest unit, the Untere Zeller Schotter braided river deposit, represents cold climate conditions and presumably a glaciation prior to the Eemian Interglaciation. The last interglacial period and the very beginning of the last glacial cycle is represented by the Mittlere Zeller Schotter, sediments of a meandering fluvial system. Younger braided river sediments, the Obere Zeller Schotter, seem to correlate with the cold climate of oxygen isotope stage (OIS) 4. Weathering of the top of the Obere Zeller Schotter is likely to represent the OIS 3. The advancing Reuss glacier caused erosion of the recent Luthern Valley, cutting into older sediments, with local loess accumulation during the last glacial maximum as indicated by cover sediments on top of the fluvial sequence.

Keywords

geochronologyluminescence datinglast glacial cyclefluvial depositsQuaternarySwitzerland
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , March 2001 , pp. 215 - 222
Copyright
University of Washington

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