Tab. 1: Meerfelder Maar Drilling B4, stratigraphy and sequence of the lake sediments (pdf 215 kB)

A core from Meerfelder Maar, with a basal age of 29,000 years, provides a continuous sedimentary sequence from Late-Glacial times to the present. It includes the stratigraphical marker of the Laach Pumice Tuff. Sedimentological, geochemical, palynological, palaeobiological, palaeomagnetic and palaeontological analyses permit reconstructions of the history of the lake and its catchment area, and hence of the climate of the region, to be made. The discovery of Middle Oligocene marine, detrital fossils in the maar sediments provides insights into the palaeogeography of the Eifel region during Tertiary times.

Eolian grain-size record of early Paleogene sediments from DSDP Hole 22-215 and ODP Leg 208 sites

To date, the only Southern Hemisphere eolian grain-size record constructed for the early Paleogene comes from Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 215. Ten early Paleogene sediment samples from Site 215 were collected and processed to show that the existing eolian grain-size record at this site can be reproduced. Five samples each from Ocean Drilling Program Sites 1263 and 1267 were similarly examined to test the possibility of generating new Southern Hemisphere eolian grain-size records for the early Paleogene. Our results indicate that an eolian grain-size signal can be constructed at Walvis Ridge, although the record will be complicated by hemipelagic terrigenous inputs. Further, we assert that a record generated at a site located on the deep flanks of Walvis Ridge is particularly susceptible to hemipelagic influence.