Revisiting the chronostratigraphy of Late Pleistocene loess-paleosol sequences in southwestern Ukraine: OSL dating of Kurortne section

Due to the general lack of other high-resolution paleoclimate records, loess-paleosol sequences are crucial archives for disentangling past climate variability in southeastern Europe. Here we present results of a multi proxy sedimentological and geochemical investigation of Kurortne loess-paleosol section from southwestern Ukraine, coupled with detailed optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating. OSL investigations were carried out on quartz grains of different grain sizes (4–11 μm, 63–90 μm and 90–125 μm), using the single aliquot regenerative (SAR) protocol. The OSL dating results are in line with previous findings on dating loess-paleosol sequences along the Black Sea shore in Romania, as well as worldwide: (i) ages obtained on different grain sizes are in agreement for equivalent doses of less than 200 Gy, whereas for higher equivalent doses 4–11 μm ages underestimate the coarser fraction ages; and (ii) an inverse correlation between dated grain size fractions and saturation characteristics is reported.