Episodic build-up of alluvial fan deposits during the Weichselian Pleniglacial in the western Transylvanian Basin, Romania and their paleoenvironmental significance

A Weichselian Pleniglacial cyclic sedimentation sequence at Floresti, near Cluj-Napoca in western Transylvania, Romania represents an alternation of slope deposits (coarse fan structures and reworked loess-like sediments) and paleosols. Detailed grain-size analysis together with pedological, pollen and malacofaunal investigation allows the recognition of four main morphoclimatic cycles similar to those of stadial–interstadial nature. Boreal forest-steppe to periglacial steppe oscillations developed during the Weichselian Pleniglacial. According to the U/Th and radiocarbon ages, the period between 70 and 26 ka BP was cool and variably dry after which the climate became colder, probably in response to the Last Glacial Maximum. The Floresti section shows strong similarities to other Central and South-Eastern European pedocomplexes of Pleniglacial age, notably the Moravian section of Dolní Ve˘stonice and loess sections from Vojvodina, Serbia.