Chronology and Main Stages of the Vegetation Development During the Mikulino Interglacial on the Russian Plain According to the Results of Buried Lake and Peat Sediments Study from Tver and Smolensk Province

• Published in: Doklady earth sciences Vol. 513; no. Suppl 1; pp. S121 - S139
• Main Authors: Maksimov, F. E., Savelieva, L. A., Fomenko, A. P., Popova, S. S., Zyuganova, I. S., Grigoriev, V.A., Petrov, A. Yu, Boltramovich, S. F., Kuznetsov, V. Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 01.07.2023; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Analysis; Approximation; Chronologies; Chronology; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Fluvial deposits; Geochronology; Interglacial periods; Lakes; Paleobotanics; Paleobotany; Palynology; Peat; Pollen; Radiometric dating; Rivers; Sediment; Sediments; Sediments (Geology); Thorium 230-thorium 232 dating; Vegetation; Malaya; lake and peat sediments; geochronology; palynological and carpological analyses; East European Plain; Th/U dating method; MIS 5e; isochronous approximation; Mikulino Interglacial
• ISSN: 1028-334X; 1531-8354
• DOI: 10.1134/S1028334X23602481

The chronology of the Mikulino Interglacial and its individual phases has been the subject of discussion. The goal of this study is to evaluate the time limits of the main stages of the Mikulino Interglacial on the Russian Plain according to 230 Th/U dating and paleobotanical studies of lake and peat sediments from the known sections located in Tver Province on the Bolshaya Dubenka River, Malaya Kosha River, Granichnaya River, and Sizhina River (Kileshino-2 section). An improved geochronological approach has been applied to identify the layers that are suitable for the 230 Th/U isochronous approximation. Together with palynological and carpological studies, this made it possible to date the layers corresponding to relatively narrow time intervals in the development of plant formations at the different stages of the Last Interglacial. New paleobotanical studies of buried lake and peat sediments from the sections located on the Bolshaya Dubenka River, Malaya Kosha River, and Granichnaya River allowed us to reconstruct the vegetation development of the Mikulino Interglacial in the interval of pollen zones M1–M7, i.e., more pollen zones have been analyzed and in greater detail than in the 1960s–1970s. A chronological scheme of the main stages of the development of vegetation in the Mikulino Interglacial is proposed based on the results of 230 Th/U dating and paleobotanical studies of the deposits from the sections in Tver Province together with previously published data obtained for the Nizhnyaya Boyarshchina section in Smolensk Province. The beginning of the Mikulino Interglacial is recorded at about 130–126 ka. Its first phase, corresponding to the M2 zone, ended about 118 ka. The preoptimal stages of vegetation development (zones M3 and M4) fit into the time interval of about 118–112 ka, while the climatic optimum of the Interglacial (zones M5 and M6) began about 112 ka and ended about 100 ka. Thus, the duration of the Mikulino Interglacial was likely to be at least 25 000 years.