A map of Pleistocene aeolian deposits in Western Europe, with special emphasis on France

Abstract

International audiencehe Land Use and Cover Area frame Statistical survey (LUCAS) database on topsoil properties inEurope was used to map aeolian deposits. The points which satisfy the grain-size criteria of coversands, loess andtransitional facies were extracted from the rasters of predicted soil texture established by kriging of the LUCAS databy Ballabio et al. (2016). A comparison with already available maps, derived from a conventional field approach,shows a good fit in most of the tested areas. The new map, however, suggests a greater extension of loess, whichseems related to the inclusion of thin loess covers, usually omitted by conventional mapping, and the presence ofpreviously unmapped areas due to lack of survey or misinterpretation. The main source of aeolian particlescorresponds to glacio-fluvial sediments at the margin of the Scandinavian and Alpine ice sheets. Coversands andloess form a broad band across northern Europe, and in the Rh^one, Rhine and Danube valleys. Large areas on theoutskirts of these deposits also received a significant loess contribution, which has been reworked in slope deposits.Conversely, southern Europe is characterized by much less loess accumulation. The Atlantic coast has transgressivedune fields that penetrate inland to varying degre

Pleistocene Involutions and Patterned Ground in France: Examples and Analysis Using a GIS Database

“…Soil texture information was included from the maps produced by Ballabio et al (), and from data on aeolian deposits (Bertran et al , ). Seismic data were obtained from the Si‐Hex catalogue, which lists earthquakes recorded between 1962 and 2009 (http://www.franceseisme.fr, Cara et al , ), from the SisFrance database (BRGM/IRSN/EDF, version 2015) for earthquakes since the year 463 (http://www.sisfrance.net), and from NEOPAL (BRGM, last update 2009) for palaeoseismicity indices (http://www.neopal.net / ).…”

Features caused by ground ice growth and decay in Late Pleistocene fluvial deposits, Paris Basin, France

“…This area remained unglaciated during the Pleistocene cold periods but experienced phases of permafrost development. Because of limited loess deposition (the area was at the southern margin of the north European loess belt; Bertran et al, 2016), remnants of periglacial landscapes are still easily readable in aerial photographs and most of the polygons caused by thermal contraction cracking of the ground and soil stripes caused by active layer cryoturbation found in France from aerial survey are concentrated in this latitudinal band (Andrieux et al, 2016a). Single grain OSL dating of the infilling of sand wedges and composite wedge pseudomorphs from sites located in the Loire valley showed that thermal contraction cracking occurred repeatedly during Marine Isotopic Stages (MIS) 4, 3, 2, and early MIS 1 (Younger Dryas) (Andrieux et al, 2018).…”

Macro- and micro-scale study and chronology of Late Weichselian aeolian sediments in Estonia, north-eastern European Sand Belt

“…Dunes, coversands and loess covers occur abundantly in the European lowlands and are important elements of the European Sand Belt (ESB; Koster 1988Koster , 2009). These landforms and sediments formed during glacial events, when a decrease in precipitation, a scarcity of vegetation, and increasing wind speeds and frost abrasion resulted in a large amount of material being deposited from off the Scandinavian Ice Sheet (SIS) (Bertran et al 2016).…”