The Deliblato (Banat) Sand Sea, which is one of the largest areas of аeolian sand in Europe, is located near the Iron Gate, which marks the crossing of the Danube River through the biggest gorge of this river. Here, Danubian alluvium has served as the sand source for the Banat Sand Sea, which was formed primarily through southeasterly (Košava) winds. Utilizing a multi-proxy approach, the objective of this study is to gain a better understanding of the environmental dynamics of the Banat Sand Sea. To achieve this goal, we conducted an analysis of an archive representing an approximately 20-m-thick dune formation on the northern edge of this dune field. Using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, we calculated aeolian sedimentation rates and dune ages. Sand was deposited here approximately between 17 ka and 13 ka. Magnetic susceptibility, grain size, and colorimetric analyses were interpreted in terms of local paleoenvironmental conditions. Calculated sedimentation rates (SR) indicate intensive aeolian deposition during the study period that range from 483 cm/ka to 502 cm/ka. We compared our data with regional and other European archives, as well as with climatic variations recorded in the Greenland ice core North Greenland Ice Core Project (NGRIP).

Natural clay-sized glauconite has the same mineralogical composition as sand-sized glauconite pellets but occurs in <2 μm clay fractions. This particular glauconite habit has been described previously from soil environments resulting from pelletal weathering but is rarely reported in higher-energy sedimentary environments. In the present study, clay-sized glauconite was identified as a common constituent in transgressive Neogene glauconite pellet-rich deposits of the southern North Sea in Belgium. X-ray diffraction results revealed that the characteristics of the clay-sized glauconite are very similar to the associated glauconite pellets in sand deposits. Both glauconite types consisted of two glauconite-smectite R1 phases with generally small percentages of expandable layers (<30%) with d060 values ranging between 1.513 Å and 1.519 Å. Clay-sized glauconite was not neoformed but formed by the disintegration of sand-sized glauconite pellets which were abraded or broken up during short-distance transport within the sedimentary basin or over the hinterland. Even in an environment where authigenic glauconite pellets occur, minimal transport over transgressive surfaces is sufficient to produce clay-sized glauconite. Furthermore, clay-sized glauconite can be eroded from marine deposits and subsequently resedimented in estuarine deposits. Clay-sized glauconite is, therefore, a proxy for the transport intensity of pelletal glauconite in energetic depositional environments and, moreover, indicates reworking in such deposits which lack pelletal glauconite.

Two phases of archaeological investigation were performed in the Novi Sad City Museum at Petrovaradin Fortress. In this study, we summarize the results of geo-archaeological investigations of the second period of excavation inside the Novi Sad City Museum building. The fortress is situated on a Danube terrace with the top of the bedrock at ca.123 m asl. The investigated section consists of undisturbed fine-sandy silt. The grain-size distribution of the sediments indicates clearly its alluvial reworking but shows also a general similarity with typical primary loess in the region. All analyzed proxies indicate slightly stronger weathering in the upper part of the profile. Luminescence ages suggest that the investigated sequence covers the last glacial period and the terrace presumably formed during MIS 4. Subsequently, the Danube started its incision at the start of the next warmer period (MIS 3) onward. This terrace age and elevation enable us to derive an uplift rate of the terrace of ca. 0.73 mm/a for the last 60 ka, which seems to increase towards the present. Basal loessic material, in which artifacts occur, likely in the reworked position, indicate that the area close to today's Petrovaradin Fortress was already inhabited in MIS 5.

The Boom Clay is an important raw material for the Belgian structural clay products industry. It can be divided into several lithological sub-units. In order to obtain an insight in the parameters which characterize these different units, and which affect the overall properties of the clay, a detailed chemical, physical and mineralogical analysis was carried out. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated between the variables, which were then placed in four correlation groups: a quartz/clay mineral group, a reducing component group, a carbonate group and a feldspar group. This treatment of the data allowed three analysis parameters to be selected: <2 µm fraction, organic carbon and CO2. The other variables could be calculated fairly accurately from these by means of regression lines.

The lithostratigraphy, age and human occupation of the Late Glacial and Holocene aeolian succession of a Late Palaeolithic Ahrensburg site in the excavation Geldrop-A2 (municipality of Heeze-Leende) have been investigated. The exposure revealed a stacked sequence of aeolian sand units and intercalated soils (Older Coversand II, Younger Coversand I (YCI), Usselo Soil, Younger Coversand II (YCII), Holocene podzol, drift sand). Fourteen optically stimulated luminescence dates on quartz and three radiocarbon dates provide the age control of the aeolian deposition (coversands, drift sand), landscape stability (soils) and human occupation. The upper part of the YCI unit was dated to the early Late Glacial. The well-developed Usselo Soil was formed during a phase of landscape stability during the late Allerød interstadial and onset of the Younger Dryas stadial. During the Younger Dryas, low aeolian dunes were formed locally (YCII), as a response to landscape instability due to cooling and vegetation decline. In the fine-grained lower part of the YCII unit an initial soil testifies to a decadal to centennial period of landscape stability. An Ahrensburg site in the upper part of this initial soil was dated at 10,915±35 BP (c. 12,854–12,789 cal BP). The lithostratigraphic position, radiocarbon dates of the underlying Usselo Soil and a possibly old-wood effect of up to 200 years suggest that Ahrensburg occupation of the dune environment occurred during the early Younger Dryas, shortly after c. 10,750 BP (12,750 cal BP). Landscape stability and podzol soil formation dominated the early and middle Holocene periods. Drift-sand deposition, probably related to human land use and vegetation decline, occurred in a 200-year period from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

In September 2016, the annual meeting of the International Union for Quaternary Research’s Loess and Pedostratigraphy Focus Group, traditionally referred to as a LoessFest, met in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, USA. The 2016 LoessFest focused on “thin” loess deposits and loess transportation surfaces. This LoessFest included 75 registered participants from 10 countries. Almost half of the participants were from outside the United States, and 18 of the participants were students. This review is the introduction to the special issue for Quaternary Research that originated from presentations and discussions at the 2016 LoessFest. This introduction highlights current understanding and ongoing work on loess in various regions of the world and provides brief summaries of some of the current approaches/strategies used to study loess deposits.

The Boom Clay Formation of early Oligocene age, which occurs underground in northern Belgium, has been studied intensively for decades as a potential host rock for the disposal of nuclear waste. The goal of the present study is to determine a reference composition for the Boom Clay using both literature methods and methods developed during this work. The study was carried out on 20 samples, representative of the lithological variability of the formation. The bulk-rock composition was obtained by X-ray diffraction using a combined full-pattern summation and singlepeak quantification method. Siliciclastics vary from 27 to 72 wt.%, clay minerals with 25–71 wt.% micas, 0–4 wt.% carbonates, 2–4 wt.% accessory minerals (mainly pyrite and anatase) and 0.5–3.5 wt.% organic matter. This bulk-rock composition was validated independently by majorelement chemical analysis. The detailed composition of the clay-sized fraction was determined by modelling of the oriented X-ray diffraction patterns, using a larger sigma star (σ*) value for discrete smectite than for the other clay minerals. The <2 μm clay mineralogy of the Boom Clay is qualitatively homogeneous; it contains 14–25 wt.% illite, 19–39 wt.% smectite, 19–42 wt.% randomly interstratified illite-smectite with about 65% illite layers, 5–12 wt.% kaolinite, 4–17 wt.% randomly interstratified kaolinite-smectite and 2–7 wt.% chloritic minerals (chlorite, “defective” chlorite and interstratified chlorite-smectite). All modelled clay mineral proportions were verified independently using major-element chemistry and cation exchange capacity measurements. Bulkrock and clay mineral analysis results were combined to obtain the overall detailed quantitative composition of the Boom Clay Formation.

Data from the in-school sample of the PROSPER preventive intervention dissemination trial were used to investigate associations between alcohol dehydrogenase genes and alcohol use across adolescence, and whether substance misuse interventions in the 6th and 7th grades (targeting parenting, family functioning, social norms, youth decision making, and peer group affiliations) modified associations between these genes and adolescent use. Primary analyses were run on a sample of 1,885 individuals and included three steps. First, we estimated unconditional growth curve models with separate slopes for alcohol use from 6th to 9th grade and from 9th to 12th grade, as well as the intercept at Grade 9. Second, we used intervention condition and three alcohol dehydrogenase genes, 1B (ADH1B), 1C (ADH1C), and 4 (ADH4) to predict variance in slopes and intercept. Third, we examined whether genetic influences on model slopes and intercepts were moderated by intervention condition. The results indicated that the increase in alcohol use was greater in early adolescence than in middle adolescence; two of the genes, ADH1B and ADH1C, significantly predicted early adolescent slope and Grade 9 intercept, and associations between ADH1C and both early adolescent slope and intercept were significantly different across control and intervention conditions.

The Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic sedimentary record in the Campine Basin along the southern border of the North Sea Basin is analysed in terms of sequence stratigraphy. All available biostratigraphic, and in some cases, magnetostratigraphic data are used to constrain the sequence chronostratigraphy. The relative geographic extent of the strata is used as an indication of the relative sea level. Tectonic and eustatic components could be distinguished in several cases using regional geological information. Generally, sequences consist of transgressive and highstand systems tracts only and have flat, abrasion-type lower boundaries. Lowstand deposits are only identified as infill of erosional space, which generally implies marked tectonic uplift. Several eustatic and tectonic events can be correlated with similar events known elsewhere in the North Sea Basin. The time intervals spanned by the different sequences vary considerably, pointing out different control mechanisms.

The Weichselian deposits of the flat Dutch-Belgian coversand area are characterized by highly varying facies types. The geomorphological location and the role of water during the deposition and the transportation of the original eolian sediments may fully explain the texture and sedimentary structures of the lithostratigraphic units. Directly deposited eolian loams and sands on the dry interfluves contrast with the same, but reworked, sediments in wet valleys and depressions. The formation of periglacial phenomena is also dependent on the geomorphologic, lithologic, and hydrologic conditions. The occurrence of peaty beds is restricted to wet environments without precise climatic significance. The Pleniglacial sequence is subdivided into early and late Pleniglacial stades, both characterized by (partial) permafrost conditions, interrupted by a middle Pleniglacial interstadial complex with clearly milder conditions.

In northwest Europe the pattern of earthquake distribution is correlated with known Quaternary faults. Excavation of fault scarps revealed that these fault zones have been active during the Late Pleistocene. In this paper we present the results of an exploratory trenching study across the Geleen Fault, part of the Feldbiss Fault Zone, the Netherlands. Middle Saalian fluvial deposits of the Meuse, overlain by local slope deposits, were excavated. The Geleen Fault has displaced the fluvial deposits by at least 5 meters. The upper layers of local slope deposits could be correlated across the fault and were all dated at approximately 15 ka B.P. This gives the opportunity to reconstruct the sequence of events that occurred about 15 ka ago. Liquefactions provide evidence for an earthquake event. However, the main offset along the Geleen Fault is not stratigraphically related to the liquefactions. The liquefactions and the fault offset are stratigraphically separated by a period of erosion. We therefore propose a sequence of events starting with an earthquake accompanied by liquefaction, followed by a period of postseismic displacement with high rates compared to the long-term average. After this period normal displacement rates occurred, comparable to the long-term average. The duration of the period of high displacement rates could not be determined.