Dear loess friends and colleagues,
200 years after the introduction of the term „loess“ into the scientific literature by Karl Caesar von Leonhard 1823/24, we would like to invite you to celebrate this anniversary in the frame of the LoessFest 2024 in Mainz, Germany sponsored by the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. We look forward to intensive discussions and exchange during one day of presentations and posters and two days of field trips.
Important dates:
January 30, 2024 Opening of registration and abstract submission.
March 15, 2024 Deadline for registration and abstract submission.
June 19, 2024 Coming together and icebreaker.
June 20, 2024 Oral and poster presentations with key notes in the morning and evening.
June 20, 2024 Conference Dinner.
June 21-22, 2024 Field trips to important loess sites (Middle and Upper Rhine, Wetterau).
Please note that the number of participants for field trips is limited. The conference fee will include all catering costs and field trip logistics. Further information including registration forms and costs will be available from January 30, 2024 on this website.
Contact: loessfest2024@geo.uni-mainz.de
Organizers: Peter Fischer, Markus Fuchs, Frank Lehmkuhl, Pierre Antoine.
Deadline for registration and abstract submission is March 15, 2024. Please send the registration form and the abstract to loessfest2024@geo.uni-mainz.de.
The event will take place in the main building of the Faculty of Natural Sciences (building number: 1341).
Johann-Joachim-Becher-Weg 21
55128 Mainz
The lectures will take place in the Senatssaal, 7th floor. The evening key note will take place in lecture hall N3.
How to get there:
Campus map – Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (uni-mainz.de)
The 2nd circular including the preliminary program can be found here.
The conference program for download can be found here.
June 19, 2024
5 pm Registration and Icebreaker Party
June 20, 2024
7:30 am Registration
8:30 am Opening
8:50-9:20 Keynote
Prud’homme, C.: Millennial-timescale quantitative estimates of climate dynamics in Central Europe from earthworm calcite granules in loess deposits.
Oral Presentations (15 min presentation, 5 min discussion)
9:20-9:40
Lünsdorf, N.K. et al.: Investigating centennial sedimentary provenance variations in a loess-paleosol sequence at high temporal resolution.
9:40-10:00
Zeeden, C. et al.: Reconstructing past environments and climate from Loess-Palaeosol Sequences: Discussing calibration functions and their application.
10:00-10:20
Laag, C. et al.: A Paleoprecipitation Record of the Last 800 ky Derived from the Suhia Kladenetz (Pleven, Bulgaria) Loess and Paleosol Sequence.
10:20-10:50
Coffee Break
10:50-11:10
Mason, J.A. et al.: Understanding Loess Landscape Evolution Using Loess Stratigraphy and Modeling.
11:10-11:30
Schaetzl, R.: Loess in the Great Lakes region of the US: Where it is and where it is not, … and why.
11:30-11:50
Kerr, P. and Walenceus, R.: Evaluating the interaction of eolian and periglacial processes using a landscape-wide chronologic assemblage from The Iowan Erosion Surface.
11:50-12:10
Sprafke, T.: Loess in the rock-sediment-soil continuum – experiences from the humid tropics.
12:10-12:30
Vandeberghe, J. et al.: Palaeoclimatic and sedimentary evolution at the end of the last glacial in the coversand type region and the adjacent loess region in the Maas valley (Netherlands).
12:30-13:50
Lunch Break
13:50-14:10
Hao, Q. et al.: Unusual weakening trend of the East Asian winter monsoon during MIS 8 revealed by Chinese loess deposits and its implications for ice age dynamics.
14:10-14:30
Rousseau, D.D. et al.: Detection of abrupt changes in East Asian monsoon from Chinese loess records.
14:30-14:50
Jary, Z. et al.: Periglacial features in Last Glacial cold loess of Poland and western part of Ukraine.
14:50-15:10
Mroczek, P. et al.: Integrating local and regional environmental influences in the Middle Dnieper loess-palaeosol sequences: new insights into Pleistocene stratigraphy.
15:10-15:30
Smalley, I.: The INQUA Loess Commission: Four Presidents 1969-2003.
15:30-16:15
Coffee Break
16:15-17:00 Keynote and Lecture Series (Lecture Hall N3, “Muschel”)
Veres, D.: The Danube loess: a high-resolution record of past environmental change in continental Europe.
17:00-19:00 Poster session (7th floor, Natural Sciences Complex)
Poster Contributions (A0, portrait format)
Bogucki, A. and Tomeniuk, O.: Periglacial loess of Ukraine as a multiproxy archive of global environmental changes in the Quaternary.
Fülling, A. et al.: The Late to Middle Pleistocene loess-palaeosol sequence of Köndringen, SW-Germany.
Hambach, U. et al.: Accretionary versus non-accretionary pedogenesis in western Eurasian loess-palaeosol sequences: The case of Walachian Steppe versus Rhine Valley loess.
Horváth, E. et al.: Combined assay method to determine the environmental significance of earthworm biospheroids in loess-paleosol series.
István, M. et al.: Research Opportunities of Phytolites Preserved in Loess-Paleosol Sequences: Examples from Süttő Loess-Paleosol Series (Hungary).
Jordanova, D. et al.: Local and site-specific factors, affecting variabilities in magnetic properties along loess paleosol profiles – case study at Kaolinovo quarries (NE Bulgaria).
Kadereit, A. et al.: Luminescence dating at the loess-palaeosol sections Baix and Collias in the Rhône Rift Valley, southern France, and chronostratigraphic implications.
Krawczyk, M. et al.: Climate change recorded in the granulometric properties and colour of the loess-soil sequence at Zaprężyn (Trzebnickie Hills).
Laag, C. et al.: Mid-Brunhes Climate Transition and millennial-timescale climate change preserved in a 800 kyrs loess-paleosol sequence from the Suhia Kladenetz quarry (Pleven, Bulgaria): a multidisciplinary study.
Łanczont, M. et al.: Loess landscapes as chronicles of past climates: a comprehensive paleogeographic study of the Dnieper Basin (Ukraine).
Li, Y. et al.: Precipitation changes since MIS3 in the Ili Basin, northern Central Asia, as inferred from the records of loess dolomite.
Liu, X. et al.: East Asian summer monsoon changes since 130 ka: organic carbon evidence from loess and lake record in the western Chinese Loess Plateau.
Marković, S. et al.: Reconstructing Interglacial Environments of the Pleistocene through Loess-Paleosol Sequences in the Southeastern Region of the Carpathian Basin.
Meyer-Heintze, S. et al.: Shallow buried soils in context to loess-like slope deposits and periglacial coverbeds in Central Europe – a transect through the low mountain range.
Novothny, Á. et al.: Age depth model and mass accumulation rates of the Süttő loess-paleosol sequence (MIS 6-2), Hungary.
Shu, P.: A drier westerly regime coexisted with strengthened rainfall extremes over Asian interior during the middle Holocene warmth.
Radaković, M.G. et al.: Červený Kopec (Czechia) and Veliki Surduk/Stari Slankamen (Serbia)- what do mollusks tell us about the environment in the last nine glacial-interglacial cycles?
Skurzyński, J. et al.: Polish Median Loess (PML) - new normalizing values for loess-focused multi-elemental analyses.
Skurzyński, J. et al.: Geochemistry (ICP) and mineralogy (QEMSCAN®) of the Late Glacial - Holocene inland dunes deposited and modified in different zones of the aeolian environment: Potentially quantitative implications for OSL dating.
Song, Y et al.: Holocene dust activity record from aeolian loess in Uzbekistan.
Walenceus, R.S. and Kerr, P.J.: A new model for interaction of eolian and periglacial processes on a transport surface during the LGM.
Wolf, D. et al.: MIS 8 loess in central Spain?
Zhang, Z.: Millennial- and orbital-scale monsoon changes in East Asia from Chinese loess microcodium δ18O.
19:30 Departure to Conference Dinner (in front of the Natural Sciences Complex).
June 21-22, 2024
Excursion (120 €) to important loess sites in the Middle Rhine Valley (Schwalbenberg and Ringen), the Wetterau (Münzenberg) and Upper Rhine Graben (Nussloch).
Departure will be at 8 am at the Institute of Geography at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. The fee includes transportation, accommodation, lunch packets and dinner. We will have dinner and stay the night at Münzenberg (Wetterau). After our last stop at Nussloch we will return to Mainz in the evening of June 22.
Please note that the number of participants for the excursion is limited to 55 persons.
June 19, 2024 (Evening) Icebreaker.
The Icebraker-Party will start at 5 pm at the Institute of Geography, JGU Mainz. We will serve local drinks and snacks. Registration at the conference office will be possible from 4 pm. The Icebreaker-Party is included in the conference fee (65 €).
June 20, 2024 (Evening) Conference Dinner (45 €)
The conference dinner will take place at a beautiful winery in Appenheim in the Mainz Basin and includes food and drinks (schiefer-trifft-muschelkalk.de/en/).
Please note that the number of participants for the conference dinner is limited to 55 persons.