Deciphering the sources of eolian dust on the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) is fundamental to reconstruct paleo-wind patterns and paleo-environmental changes. Existing datasets show contradictory source evolutions of eolian dust on the CLP, both on orbital and tectonic timescales. Here, the silicate Sr and Nd isotopic compositions of a restricted grain size fraction (28-45 μm) were measured to tr...

The focus of the keynote paper is on the comparison of different foundation concepts for three case histories of European significance. The stadium in the Austrian city of Klagenfurt was designed and built for the EURO 2008 (Austria and Switzerland) in slightly consolidated soft lacustrine clays. The shallow foundation rests on floating stone columns installed with the vibro replacement techniq...

Sustainability of agricultural landscapes depends largely on land-use practices. As one of the most productive and widespread agricultural soils, loess is often deep and easily eroded, posing grand challenges for environmental sustainability around the world. One prime example is the Loess Plateau of China, which has been cultivated for more than 7500 years. Based on long-term data sets, this s...

The hand stencils of European Paleolithic art tend to be considered of pre-Magdalenian age and scholars have generally assigned them to the Gravettian period. At El Castillo Cave, application of U-series dating to calcite accretions has established a minimum age of 37,290 years for underlying red hand stencils, implying execution in the earlier part of the Aurignacian if not beforehand. Togethe...

Sequential extraction integrated with isotope analysis was carried out on a sediment core from Liaodong Bay, northeast China, for characterizing Pb in various extraction phases and its possible sources. Results show that in all extracted fractions Pb concentrations increased abruptly in the top part of the sediments that deposited after 1980, but remained lower and rather constant before 1980. ...

[1] The geologic origin of the Medusae Fossae Formation (MFF) has remained a mystery despite three decades of research. To better constrain its formation, an in-depth analysis of observations made in the literature was combined with a new survey of over 700 Mars Orbiter Camera narrow-angle images of the MFF to identify morphologic characteristics and material properties that define this formati...

Magnetic properties are sensitive paleoenvironmental proxies frequently used in studies of loess paleosol profiles. Understanding precisely the magnetic recording soil responses to environmental and climatic changes needs combining pedologic data geophysical proxies. Here we present a new high-resolution study 450 ka old loess-paleosol profile from low Danube area at Kaolinovo (NE Bulgaria). Th...

Crystal lattice defects in quartz have long been exploited for age determination, yet also show potential sediment provenance studies. Here, we introduce a novel method tracking aeolian dust by utilizing the natural accumulation of E1’ and peroxy defect centers quartz. Our approach is based on previously observed premise that arise from Frenkel pairs, their concentration increases with quartz-b...

Abstract Goethite/hematite ratios in soils are widely used to reconstruct past climatic changes, but their accurate measurements have remained challenging due the matrix effect. Here we present a new method for measuring soil goethite/hematite by characterizing band position of electron pair transition (EPT) based on diffuse reflectance spectra processed continuum removal. We introduce “half‐ba...