The lithostratigraphy of the Les Echets basin, France: tentative correlation between cores

Two new long sediment cores (EC1 and EC3), recovered from different locations within the infilled basin at Les Echets, France, provide a new high-resolution record of terrestrial and lacustrine responses to climatic changes during Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 3 and 2. The lithologies of the cores are described in detail and correlated with each other by stratigraphic marker horizons, fluctuations in organic matter and AMS radiocarbon ages. The tentative correlation of the new cores to those described and analysed by de Beaulieu et al. (1980) and de Beaulieu & Reille (1984a) provides a preliminary chronostratigraphic framework. Sedimentation during MIS3 started with accumulation of sands and silts and was followed by alternating gyttja and clayey gyttja silts. Exceptionally high sedimentation rates during MIS2 led to the infilling of the basin. Alternating organic-rich and minerogenic-rich sediments appear to coincide with changes in pollen assemblages (de Beaulieu & Reille 1984a) and suggest that millennial-scale climatic changes controlled lake productivity and catchment stability during most of MIS3.