First evidence of “in situ” Eemian sediments on the high plateau of Evian (Northern Alps, France): implications for the chronology of the Last Glaciation

A continuous lacustrine sequence has been obtained from the nearby Roseire peat-bog (890 m a.s.l). Pollen and radiometric results show the establishment of a former palaeolake during the Upper Pleniglacial, probably before ca. 22 450±850 cal years BP, thus implying that the high plateau was ice-free from that time. These new data appear to suggest that the maximal extension of the Rhône glacier occurred prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (OIS 2) and, according to a well-documented geomorphological context, probably during the Lower Würmian Pleniglacial.