VOLCANIC MAARS, LONG QUATERNARY SEQUENCES AND THE WORK OF THE INQUA SUBCOMMISSION ON EUROPEAN QUATERNARY STRATIGRAPHY

For several years the INQUA Subcommission on European Quaternary Strat igraphy (SEQS) has been actively fostering debate on the stratigraphy and typification of the Middle Pleistocene in Europe. Palynological in vestigations of deep sediment cores from maar lakes in Italy and the F rench Massif Central have now provided a stratigraphical framework con clusively correlated with the deep ocean record, confirming the occurr ence of two clearly temperate intervals between the Holsteinian and Ee mian Interglacials. This places interglacial deposits from localities such as Schoningen, Pritzwalk (Domnitz), Wacken and Maastricht-Belvede re into a clearer perspective. All major Saalian glacial advances prob ably relate to Oxygen Isotope Stage 6. Reasons for the relative paucit y of continental interglacial deposits equivalent to Oxygen Isotope St ages 7 and 9 are discussed. These Stages were not preceded by major gl acial events in northern Europe, so suitable basins of deposition were largely absent; in contrast fluvial erosion was very active, with muc h downcutting and drainage re-organisation. Finally evidence from the sea-surface temperature record of the Norwegian Sea does suggest a les s powerful pattern of oceanic circulation in the North Atlantic during these interglacial intervals within the Saalian Complex Stage, when c ompared to those of the Eemian and Holocene. This difference would cer tainly have affected environments on the adjacent European continent. (C) 1998 INQUA/Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.