Rock-magnetic characteristics and mechanisms of the Titel loess-paleosol sequence in northern Serbia since late Middle Pleistocene

The changing pattern of magnetic characteristics in eastern European loess deposits is the most similar across the world to that of the Chinese Loess Plateau, both of which are dominated by the strength of pedogenesis. Hence a systematical study to the rock magnetism of eastern European loess is not only helpful for understanding the paleoclimatic information preserved by themselves, but also beneficial for promoting the cognition of the pedogenic mechanism in loess records. In this study, a detailed rock-magnetic analysis of seventy loess/paleosol samples, taken from the Titel Loess Plateau in northern Serbia, is carried out for a better understanding of the magnetic records since late Middle Pleistocene. The results provide us some implications. First, the magnetic susceptibility values of the paleosols in the Titel loess-paleosol sequence are generally less than 100×10⁻⁸ m³ kg⁻¹, significantly lower than those of the loess sections in the Chinese Loess Plateau, even though they are under similar climatic conditions. However, the behaviors of the parameters related to the distributions of magnetic particles in these two regions are similar. The difference in the contents of ferrimagnetic minerals is the leading reason that caused the difference in their magnetic characteristics, but the mechanism is still open to study. Second, based on the analysis of thermomagnetic curves, a gradually increasing trend of the relative contents of maghemite over the last four glacial-interglacial cycles is identified. The realization of thermally unstable maghemite from Chinese loess leads us to speculate that the long-term increasing trend of the relative contents of maghemite in Titel loess-paleosol sequence likely is a mineralogical response to the progressive enhancement of continental climate in the Pannonian Basin since the Middle Pleistocene.