Stratigraphy of a site with Eemian interglacial deposits in north Estonia (Juminda Peninsula)

Sediment lithology, lithofacies relationships, palynological and diatom analysis indicate that two drill cores extracted from ancient valleys of the Juminda Peninsula, north Estonia, represent a previously undetected interglacial sedimentary sequence sandwiched between the Middle and Late Pleistocene glacigenic deposits. Four different coloured major lithofacies associations (units), representing two glacigenic cycles, and deposits with the Late Saalian pollen assemblages zone (LS1), the uppermost Eemian (E9), and Early Weichselian pollen zone (EW) were distinguished at the section. The bottommost depositional unit consists of brownish coloured clay, diamicton and gravel beds. The second depositional unit, correlative to the Eemian Interglacial, consists of a black organic-rich palaeosoil and stratified sand. A thick grey coloured bed of massive and partly stratified Weichselian diamicton, sand, clay and silt comprises the third unit, and the fourth, the topmost depositional unit, consists of yellowish grey sands and silts of the Baltic Sea.