La stratigraphie de Beerse-Dam (Belgique)

Beerse-Dam is localised in the sandy region of Northern Belgium. The sandy and loamy sediments covering the Kempen Clay are of Weichsehan age. The importance of the exposure can be summarized as : 1) Beerse-Dam permitted to show that the ice wedges belonging to a fossil permafrost, are often overlain by an intensily convoluted horizon, representing the active layer. 2) The important cold period characterized by the development of a continuous permafrost at the beginning of the plemglacial, follows an interstadial (probably the equivalent of Odderade) during wich a boreal pine forest covered the Kempen. 3) The "Brabantse leem" in the Kempen can be considered as the equivalent of the Hesbayen loess. It covers a peat dated at 42 000 B P and in it's top a humic soil has developed. With a C14 age of 38 000 B.P this soil coincides with the Hengelo-interstadial. 4) The Wildert coversands rest upon a humic loam. Its position above an important erosion level, its homogeneity and its pollen content in which Pinus in absolutely dominant, resemble the characteristics of Kesselt A at the base of the Brabantien.