Late Pleistocene (Late Glacial) – Holocene environmental changes along the Danube valley based on detailed complex examination of sand dune profiles

Abstract

In this study the authors analyse the sands and fossil soils of three sand dunes situated along the Danube River near to
Budapest, using sedimentological, pedological, xylotomical and malacological methods. The respective ages of the layers
were determined by radiocarbon and luminescence methods (IRSL, TL). The main aims of the research were the
following: outline the characteristic features of the evolution of the Late Glacial-Holocene environment; determine the
main July temperature by malacothermometre; indicate three natural sand-moving periods (as younger Dryas, end of
Boreal and the second phase of Atlantic), and three anthropogenic sand-moving periods (as Subboreal (bronze age),
Subatlantic, and Medieval Age). A brown forest soil was discovered as a regional element. This soil developed on the
aeolian sand deposited 8000±300 years ago, and indicates the surface through 3–7 thousand years. Nowadays it is covered
by blown sands of a different age.