Description: Paleoecological records from two Holocene peat bogs in northern Germany are linked by two microscopic volcanic ash layers, correlated by petrology and geochemistry to explosive volcanism on Iceland. The younger “Microlite tephra” cannot be correlated to any known eruption, while the older tephra layer is identified as a deposit of the Hekla 3 eruption. The tephra layers are dated by an age–depth regression of accelerator mass spectrometry 14C ages that have been calibrated and combined in probability distributions. This procedure gives an age of 730–664 cal yr B.C. for the “Microlite tephra” event and 1087–1006 cal yr B.C. for the Hekla 3 event. Accordingly, the tephra layers were deposited during the late Bronze Age. At this time, human settlement slowly increased pressure on the environment, as indicated by changes in woodland pollen composition at the two bogs. The tephra-marker horizons further show that the palynologically defined transition from the Subboreal to the Subatlantic Period is synchronous in the investigated area. However, the macroscopic visible marker in peat, the change from fibrous to sapric peat, the “Schwarztorf-Weißtorf-Kontakt,” is asynchronous. Bog vegetation did not immediately react in unison to a climatic change at this pollen zone boundary; instead, the timing of vegetation change depended on the location within the bog.

Description: Die quartäre Sedimentfolge der Kärlicher Tongrube ist ein Schlüsselprofil für das Pleistozän Mitteleuropas: (a) Rhein- und Mosel-Terrassenablagerungen belegen die junge tektonische Hebung des paläozoischen Rheinischen Schildes, (b) Löß- und Paläobodenschichten spiegeln spätquartäre Klimaschwankungen wider, (c) Artefakt-Horizonte dokumentieren eine ausgedehnte frühmenschliche Geschichte des Mittelrheinraums, und (d) zahlreiche eingeschaltete Tephralagen — abgelagert während explosiver Vulkaneruptionen im Osteifel-Vulkanfeld — bilden ideale chronostratigraphische Leithorizonte. Die chemische und mineralogische Zusammensetzung zweier phonolithischer Bims-Fallablagerungen, die bisher als „Wehrer Bimse" bezeichnet wurden, unterscheidet sich drastisch von schlotnahen Tephraablagerungen am Wehr-Vulkan selber. Darüber hinaus zeigen (40)Ar/(39)Ar-Laseranalysen von Feldspat-Kristallen, daß die beiden Tephraablagerungen, mit Eruptionsaltern von 452.000 ± 8.000 Jahren vor Heute (KAE-DT2) und 〈 618.000 ± 13.000 Jahren v. h. (KAE-DTl), bis zu doppelt so alt sind, wie bislang angenommen. Schlotnahe, strombolianisch-phreatomagmatische, mafische Tephraschichten (KAE-BT4; lokale Bezeichnung: „Brockentuff"), die einem interglazialen Paläobodenhorizont im Hangenden der jüngeren Bimsablagerung eingeschaltet sind (lokale Bezeichnung: „Kärlicher Interglazial"), stammen von einem heute erodierten, kleinen Eruptionszentrum NW der Tongrube. (40)Ar/(39)Ar-Datierungen von Phlogopit-Ein-sprenglingen nach dem Stufenheizungs- und Laserverfahren ergeben für KAE-BT4 ein Eruptionsalter von 396.000 ± 20.000 Jahren v. h. Unsere Untersuchung zeigt, daß das Kärlicher Profil vor allem terrestrische Pleistozänablagerungen enthält, die zur Zeit der marinen Sauerstoffisotopenstadien 11 bis 19 abgelagert wurden. Jüngere Schichten sind nur unvollständig im Hangenden von KAE-BT4 erhalten. Das „Kärlicher Interglazial locus typicus" repräsentiert eine ca. 400.000 Jahre alte interglaziale Klimaphase und wird hier mit dem marinen Sauerstoffisotopenstadium 11 korreliert. Frühmenschliche Artefakte, die in Schichten unmittelbar im Hangenden der Tephra KAE-BT4 auftreten, könnten demnach ebenfalls bis zu ca. 400.000 Jahre alt sein.

Description: The distribution and geochemistry of four rhyolitic tephra horizons from Iceland dated to the ad 700s–800s is assessed. These include the rhyolitic phase of the Landnám tephra (ad 870s), the ad 860 layer, a previously unrecorded tephra called the GA4–85 layer (c. ad 700–800) and the Tjïrnuvík tephra (c. ad 800s). The ad 860 and GA4–85 layers were first found in peat bogs in north Ireland. They are here correlated with equivalent horizons on Iceland which were found below the Landnám tephra (c. ad 870s). This time period is considered important in the North Atlantic region, because it coincides with a phase of human settlement in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The establishment of a detailed tephrochronology may provide a tool for exact dating of sediment successions and sediments associated with archaeological excavations. Caution must be taken especially on Iceland where the Landnám tephra is often used for dating archaeological sites. This investigation show that several rhyolitic tephra horizons occur close in time to the Landnám tephra, and that mistakes can be made if detailed geochemical analyses are not carried out, especially in areas which are distal to the source of the Landnám tephra (the Veidivötn and Torfajökull volcanic systems, southern Iceland).

Description: Längsee is a small meromictic lake in Carinthia, SE Alps, with partially varved Lateglacial sediments. The Längsee tephra correlates to the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff (NYT), an eruption from the Campanian Volcanic Province, Italy. This tephra provides a Lateglacial chronostratigraphic time marker from central Italy across the Adriatic Sea to the southeastern Alps. The Längsee tephra is discussed in the context of pollen, geochemical, and microstratigraphical data from a profundal sediment core from Längsee. The age of 14,120 cal yr BP for the NYT has been accepted from the Monticchio chronology. The timescale for the Lateglacial in the Längsee record is based on laminae counts and has been linked to calendar year ages using the NYT tephrachronological marker. Consequently, the mass expansion of Betula has been dated at 14,270 cal yr BP. The expansion of P. sylvestris started concurrent with the NYT, and about 180 yr later, at 13,940 cal yr BP, P. sylvestris forests were established. The Younger Dryas biozone at Längsee is characterized only by a slight increase in non-arboreal pollen and dominated by pine with visible variations only in pine pollen types. Differentiation of pine pollen types allowed the recognition of three minor fluctuations during the Lateglacial interstadial. Two of these oscillations tentatively have been correlated with the Aegelsee and Gerzensee oscillations in Switzerland as well as with vegetation changes in NW Germany.

Description: A high-resolution Holocene tephrochronology for northern Germany has been established based on systematic tephrostratigraphical analysis of three peat bogs. Microscopic volcanic ash layers have been traced and characterised petrographically and by the chemical composition of the glass shards. At least 37 ash horizons representing 16 different explosive volcanic eruptions have been identified and many can be correlated between the three sites, up to 100 km apart. The tephra layers can be related to Icelandic volcanic sources and some correlated to the eruptions of Askja 1875, Hekla 3, Hekla Selsund, Hekla 4 and Hekla 5, as well as to unspecified eruptions of Icelandic volcanic systems, e.g. Torfajökull. The source volcanoes for some tephra layers remain unidentified. Some tephra layers were known previously from the North Atlantic region (e.g. Sluggan, Glen Garry), others have not been recorded previously in the literature (e.g. microlite tephra). This study provides the first comprehensive Holocene tephrostratigraphical record for northern Germany, complementing the North Atlantic tephrostratigraphical dating framework, effectively extending it into central Europe. The study shows that Icelandic ash layers are even more widespread than hitherto thought.