Interstadiale Bodenbildungen in oberitalienischen Würm-Lössen

Abstract. Based on field-work and previous publications an attempt is made to outline the distribution of loess in Northern Italy. Five interstadial soils are described. In the Dora Ripária region W of Torino two Würm loesses overly the soliflually eroded plastosol of the Last Inter-glacial. The lower one weathered to a „sol brun lessivé", the upper to an extremely acid „sol lessivé". Also the loess on the Riss moraines of the Dora Báltea glacier was deposited in two phases of the Würm period. The (interstadial and recent) soils developed therefrom, are both extreme pseudogleys, the first of which is rich in former frost wedges. The Mindel gravels of the river Ticino are covered by both Riss and Würm loesses. The extremely pseudogleyed Riss loess has by far more and bigger frost wedges than the older Würm loess, which is weathered into a moderately pseudogleyed braunerde. Two soliflual loesses covering Riss moraines are described from the western Garda region; the lower weathered into a „sol lessivé", the upper into a „sol brun lessivé". E of the lake of Garda an interstadial black earth was found, which had been washed into a valley and then covered by Würm moraines. Finally the developmental climate and the stratigraphic position of the described fossil soils are discussed.