Studia Quaternaria

Large exposure near the brick-field in Halie represents one of the most complete loess sequences in the Ukrainian Carpathian F orcland, which i I lustrates a progress of events covering a considerable part of the Middle Pleistocene and the whole Upper Pleistocene. The most important of these arc: the Luck soil corresponding to the soil from the Zbójno lnicrglacial in Polish profiles and Dornnitz Interglacial (1~0 stage 9) in West European profiles, bottom part of the Upper Pleistocene (Dnieper= Odranian = Saalian I) loesses, which arc extremely thick and stratigraphically divided into units of lower rank. and well developed soil complexes - Korshov and Horok hov. Investigations of the Korshov soil arc a basis to discuss at least two stages/phases ofpedogcncsis development during the last but one interglacial (Lublinian = Trcenian: 1~0 stage 7). The Horokhov paleosol is connected with the Ecmian Interglacial. The Dubno and Rovno soils occur within the poorly developed Vistulian loesses: the Rovno soil is a cultural layer.

Pollen and palcopedological studies have been carried out in parallel for the Stari Bezradychy sequence of the Upper Pleistocene age. The paleoenvironmental information derived from both sets of data is in general well correlated. The section presents a rather complete sequence of the last interglacial-glacial cycle. It includes eight units of the Ukrainian Stratigraphical Framework of the Pleistocene. Interglacial climatic optimum is registered by pollen succession of the Mikulino (Ecmian) type in the climax forest palcosols of Pryluky-Kaydaky pedocomplcx at the base of the sequence, above the Dnieper Glacial deposits. The coldest and most continental environment is recorded in the youngest loess. The soils of Upper Pryluky, Yytachiv and Dofinivka units are correlated with the Early Glacial and four Plcniglacial interstadials. Multiple environmental variations during the Upper Pleistocene recorded in the Stari Bezradychy sequence arc important for study of global climatic changes and interregional correlation. Tentative correlation with marine isotopic stages is proposed.

The purpose of drumlin formation is to facilitate glacier flow. Drumlins form in a deforming layer between ice and ground, they produce a pimpled ground surface which causes less drag in the flowing system, after the fashion of the Prandtl effect which reduces boundary layer detachment (as in the flying golf ball). This pimpled surface has selforganising properties and this causes the development of a low drag situation. The drumlin field is the critical phenomenon; the formation of individual drumlins is a small part of the overall effect.

The present study is an attempt to utilise the uranium-thorium dates ofspeleothems as a source ofpalaeoclimatic data. The clue is that the changing climate influenced intensity of speleothem deposition, which is reflected in clustering of U-Series dates of speleothems in certain time intervals. This work discusses and improves various methods of combined presentation of dates, with a special attention to the presentation in form of growth frequency ('pdf) curves. Using the 'bootstrap' method the confidence intervals of the 'pdf' curves could be determined. Also the algorithm, originally developed to determine parameters of arbitrarily chosen maxima in the curve, has been modified. Due to that an assessment of number of maxima has been possible. This method enables objective distinction of phases of speleothem growth, which cannot be done 'by eye' when the 'pdf' curve is smooth. The statistical tests show that the reliable 'pdf' curve should contain more than 150 dates. Basing on 308 U-series dates of cave speleothems from southern Poland and other regions of central Europe, the growth frequency curves for the Carpathians and Uplands have been constructed. Comparison of phases of speleothem growth, distinguished by various authors for several regions of Europe, indicates that the climatic changes were synchronous over the whole region. However, different shapes of the 'pdf' curves reflect increasing continuity ofspeleothem growth in the N-S transect southwards. This may be connected with the N-S climatic gradient in Europe. Using the 'pdf' curves from caves of Tatra and Low Tatra Mountains the most probable timing of development phases of mountain glaciers has been delimited.