An advance of the Eurasian Ice Sheet to the Central European Uplands preceded MIS 16

Records of ice-rafted detritus (IRD) from the global oceans indicate the expansion of large Northern Hemisphere ice sheets prior to the Plio–Pleistocene transition. Yet, the geometry of these early ice sheets remains unclear due to limited availability of well-dated terrestrial sediments. In the German and Polish sectors of the North European Plain, chronostratigraphic schemes evolved independently to produce a contrasting picture of regional glacial history. The most divergent points hinge upon the timing and number of alleged Middle Pleistocene Eurasian Ice Sheet (EIS) advances to reach as far south as the Central European Uplands (~51°N).

Here we present ¹⁰Be-²⁶Al abundances measured directly in subglacial tills obtained from two locations within ~180 km of the southernmost German-Polish border (Peres, DE; Jaroszów, PL). Using Particle-Pathway Inversion of Nuclide Inventories (P-PINI), we calculate sediment burial ages by matching large arrays of simulated ¹⁰Be-²⁶Al pairs to empirical data, accounting for glaciation-induced complexities in pre-burial sample nuclide ratios. These results are supplemented by U-Pb geochronology of detrital zircons within the tills as a means of inferring source area correlations and interpreting former ice flow pathways.

Our findings suggest equivalency between the lower stadial of the Elsterian glacial stage in the eastern North German Plain and the Sanian 1 in the Polish Silesian Lowlands. Despite their conventional respective assignments to MIS 12 and MIS 16, our data indicate an older concordant age (MIS 36–56) for both deposits. This implies a temporal compression of the Polish pre-glacial series and provides evidence of the disputed Narevian glacial stage below the Nidanian. Dating uncertainties allow correlation with either the floristically-defined Pinnau (Menapian) or the older Lieth (Eburonian) cold phases recognized across Germany and northwest Europe. We further examine these correlations in light of our findings from the well-studied Szczerców lignite mine exposures (central PL), ~200 km east, where dating of Sanian 1 and 2 tills in stratigraphic position suggests that they were emplaced between MIS 16 and 22. Collectively, these results point to an Early Pleistocene advance of the EIS, extending to ~51°N at a time when peak glacial global sea levels were ~50–100 m higher than those of the Last Glacial Maximum.