PALEOENVIRONMENTAL SIGNIFICANCE OF GRUS WEATHERING PROFILES - A REVIEW WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NORTHERN AND CENTRAL-EUROPE

Grus weathering profiles are common signs of bedrock alteration in nor thern middle and high latitudes and have frequently been used to infer climatic regimes of the past and to develop denudation chronologies. This paper shows that the actual palaeoenvironmental significance of g rus weathering is limited, and its potential in such reconstructions i s clearly conditioned by local situations. Textural and mineralogical features of grus weathering profiles are rather unreliable indicators of past environments, being influenced by a variety of factors, includ ing parent rock characteristics, topography and geological and geomorp hological history. Grus weathering has been operating for at least the last few million years and the known profiles are of different ages, so it is doubtful if there is any narrow range of climatic conditions to which the origin of grus may be ascribed. By contrast, the relative ly neglected relationships between grus weathering and topography at d ifferent scales of inquiry may be worthy of exploration, because it ma y help to decipher evolutionary pathways of weathering profiles.