Publisher © Czech Geological Survey, ISSN: 2336-5757 (online), 0514-8057 (print)
Last Glacial talus deposits at Hosťovce and their paleoclimatic significance (Southeast Slovakia, National Park Slovak Karst)
Abstract
In the limestone quarry at Hosťovce near Turňa slope deposits at the foot of the karst plateau Dolný vrch were exposed. Their sequence consist of alternate layers of limestone rubble to coarse scree whose matrix is partly reddish and clayey/redeposited terra rossa material, partly light brown and rather loess-like, which is particularly true of layers 8 and 3 with mass occurrence of Granaria frumentum - a thermophilous south mid-European snail, confined to xeric grassland, just as the associated species Chondrula tridens and Pupilla species occurring in minor amounts. This assemblage indicates a climate with summer temperatures similar to those of the present-day, however, under a higher degree of continentality. Both layers have been dated as 40 680 BP and 40 650 BP which corresponds to middle MIS 3 and might be correlated with the Upton Warren Interstadial of the British Isles. The malacofauna of Host'ovce thus indicates that the climate of earlier Weichselian in the Pannonian Region was considerably warmer than that of NW Europe.
