Stratigraphische Begriffe für das Quartär des Periglazialraums in Deutschland

Abstract. Only a few Quaternary deposits of the periglacial area in Germany can be described in paleoecological or palynological - and therefore climatostratigraphical - terms. This paper provides a supplementary description of the most important (bio)stratigraphical terms relating to the warm and cold stages of the Lower and Middle Pleistocene, especially those allowing correlations with the glaciated regions of northern and southern Germany (e.g. in STEPHAN & MENKE 1993; Litt et al., this volume). The chronostratigraphical subdivision into Lower, Middle and Upper Pleistocene is based on the Stratigraphical Table of Germany 2002 (STD 2002) and on the climatostratigraphical regional division into cold and warm stages for continental northwestern Europe and Germany (LITT et al. 2005), which follows the traditional positioning of the Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary at the transition between the Reuverian and Pretiglian stages (Zagwijn 1960). According to international agreement on the location of the GSSP at Vrica (Italy), the sections of the Pretiglian stage and the Tiglian Complex belong to the Gelasian, which is still assigned to the Pliocene. The Gelasian/Calabrian boundary was set at about 1.8 million years at the Vrica section at the top of the Olduvai magnetozone and therefore represents the internationally agreed base of the Pleistocene. The practical value of this boundary – which does not take prior major climatic events into account – has been a matter of controversy. By international consensus, the boundary between the Lower and Middle Pleistocene has been set at the palaeomagnetically defined Brunhes/Matuyama boundary at 780 ka; the Upper Pleistocene begins with the last interglacial, the Eemian stage (MIS 5e).