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Approaches and Challenges to the Study of Loess—Introduction to the Loessfest Special Issue Schaetzl, Randall J.; Bettis, E

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Approaches and Challenges to the Study of Loess—Introduction to the Loessfest Special Issue Schaetzl, Randall J.; Bettis, E Aberystwyth University Approaches and challenges to the study of loess—Introduction to the LoessFest Special Issue Schaetzl, Randall J.; Bettis, E. Arthur; Crouvi, Onn; Fitzsimmons, Kathryn E.; Grimley, David A.; Hambach, Ulrich; Lehmkuhl, Frank; Markovi, Slobodan B.; Mason, Joseph A.; Owczarek, Piotr; Roberts, Helen M.; Rousseau, Denis-Didier; Stevens, Thomas; Vandenberghe, Jef; Zárate, Marcelo; Veres, Daniel; Yang, Shiling; Zech, Michael; Conroy, Jessica L.; Dave, Aditi K. Published in: Quaternary Research DOI: 10.1017/qua.2018.15 Publication date: 2018 Citation for published version (APA): Schaetzl, R. J., Bettis, E. A., Crouvi, O., Fitzsimmons, K. E., Grimley, D. A., Hambach, U., Lehmkuhl, F., Markovi, S. B., Mason, J. A., Owczarek, P., Roberts, H. M., Rousseau, D-D., Stevens, T., Vandenberghe, J., Zárate, M., Veres, D., Yang, S., Zech, M., Conroy, J. L., ... Zech, R. (2018). Approaches and challenges to the study of loess—Introduction to the LoessFest Special Issue. Quaternary Research, 89(03), 563-618. https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2018.15 Document License CC BY-NC-ND General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the Aberystwyth Research Portal (the Institutional Repository) are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the Aberystwyth Research Portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the Aberystwyth Research Portal Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. tel: +44 1970 62 2400 email: [email protected] Download date: 27. Sep. 2021 Schaetzl, R., Bettis, E., Crouvi, O., Fitzsimmons, K., Grimley, D., Hambach, U., . Zech, R. (2018). Approaches and challenges to the study of loess—Introduction to the LoessFest Special Issue. Quaternary Research, 89(3), 563-618. doi:10.1017/qua.2018.15 1 Approaches and Challenges to the Study of Loess 2 3 Randall J. Schaetzl Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences 4 673 Auditorium Rd, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI USA 48824-1117 [email protected] 5 E. Arthur Bettis III Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Institute for Hydraulic Research 6 IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa USA 52242 art- 7 [email protected] 8 Onn Crouvi Geological Survey of Israel, Jerusalem 9550161, Israel [email protected] 9 Kathryn E. Fitzsimmons Research Group for Terrestrial Palaeoclimates, Max Planck Institute for 10 Chemistry, Hahn-Meitner-Weg 1, 55128 Mainz, Germany [email protected] 11 David A. Grimley Illinois State Geological Survey, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA 12 61820 [email protected] 13 Ulrich Hambach BayCEER and Chair of Geomorphology, University of Bayreuth, Germany 14 [email protected] 15 Frank Lehmkuhl Department of Geography, RWTH Aachen University, Templergraben 55, 52066 16 Aachen, Germany [email protected] 17 Slobodan B. Marković Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Trg Dositeja Obradovića 3, 21000 Novi 18 Sad, Serbia; Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Knez Mihajlova 35, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia 19 [email protected] 20 Joseph A. Mason Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 550 N. Park St., Madison, 21 Wisconsin, 53706 USA [email protected] 22 Piotr Owczarek, Institute of Geography and Regional Development, Faculty of Earth Sciences and 23 Environmental Management, University of Wroclaw, Pl. Uniwersytecki 1, 50-137 Wroclaw, Poland 24 [email protected] 25 Helen M. Roberts Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, 26 Wales, SY23 3DB, United Kingdom [email protected] 27 Denis-Didier Rousseau Ecole Normale Supérieure, UMR CNRS 8539, Laboratoire de Météorologie 28 Dynamique, and CERES-ERTI, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris CEDEX 5, France; Lamont-Doherty Earth 29 Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York, 10964 USA [email protected] 30 Thomas Stevens Department of Earth Sciences, Program for Air, Water and Landscape Sciences; Physical 31 Geography, Uppsala University, Villav. 16, Uppsala, Sweden [email protected] Schaetzl, R., Bettis, E., Crouvi, O., Fitzsimmons, K., Grimley, D., Hambach, U., . Zech, R. (2018). Approaches and challenges to the study of loess—Introduction to the LoessFest Special Issue. Quaternary Research, 89(3), 563-618. doi:10.1017/qua.2018.15 32 Jef Vandenberghe Department of Earth Sciences, De Boelelaan 1085, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, 33 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands [email protected] 34 Daniel Veres Institute of Speleology, Romanian Academy, Romania, and Interdisciplinary Research 35 Institute on Bio-Nano-Science of Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania [email protected] 36 Shiling Yang Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 BeiTuChengXi Road, 37 Beijing 100029, China [email protected] 38 Michael Zech Institute of Geography, Technical University of Dresden, Helmholtzstrasse 10, D-01062 39 Dresden, Germany, and Department of Terrestrial Biogeochemistry, Martin-Luther University Halle- 40 Wittenberg, Weidenplan 14, D-06120 Halle, Germany [email protected] 41 Jessica L. Conroy Departments of Geology and Plant Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 42 Illinois, USA 61820 [email protected] 43 Aditi K. Dave Research Group for Terrestrial Palaeoclimates, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Hahn- 44 Meitner-Weg 1, 55128 Mainz, Germany [email protected] 45 Dominik Faust Institute of Geography, Dresden University of Technology, 01062 Dresden, Germany 46 [email protected] 47 Qingzhen Hao Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and 48 Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and College of Earth Science, University of Chinese Academy 49 of Sciences, Beijing, China [email protected] 50 Igor Obreht Department of Geography, RWTH Aachen University, Germany; Organic Geochemistry 51 Group, MARUM-Center for Marine Environmental Sciences and Department of Geosciences, University 52 of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany [email protected] 53 Charlotte Prud’homme Research Group for Terrestrial Palaeoclimates, Max Planck Institute for 54 Chemistry, Hahn-Meitner-Weg 1, 55128 Mainz, Germany [email protected] 55 Ian Smalley School of Geology, Geography and the Environment, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 56 7RH, United Kingdom [email protected] 57 Alfonsina Tripaldi IGEBA-CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires Pabellón 2, Primer piso, Oficina 3 Ciudad 58 Universitaria C1428EHA, Buenos Aires, Argentina [email protected] 59 Christian Zeeden Department of Geography, RWTH Aachen University, Germany; IMCCE, Observatoire 60 de Paris, PSL Research Université, CNRS, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Université Paris 06, Université 61 Lille, 75014 Paris, France [email protected] 62 Roland Zech Institute of Geography, Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Löbdergraben 32, D-07743 Jena, 63 Germany [email protected] 64 Schaetzl, R., Bettis, E., Crouvi, O., Fitzsimmons, K., Grimley, D., Hambach, U., . Zech, R. (2018). Approaches and challenges to the study of loess—Introduction to the LoessFest Special Issue. Quaternary Research, 89(3), 563-618. doi:10.1017/qua.2018.15 65 Introduction 66 In September, 2016, the annual meeting of INQUA’s Loess and Pedostratigraphy Focus Group 67 met in western Wisconsin, USA. This focus group is part of the International Union for Quaternary 68 Research’s (INQUA) commission on Stratigraphy and Chronology 69 (http://www.inqua.org/aboutCommissions.html). Meetings of this group have traditionally been 70 referred to as LoessFests. The 2016 LoessFest focused on “thin” loess deposits and loess transportation 71 surfaces. Held in Eau Claire, Wisconsin from Sep. 22-25, this LoessFest included 75 registered 72 participants from 10 countries. Almost half of the participants were from outside the US, and 18 of the 73 participants were students. In all, 29 oral papers and 14 posters were presented during the first two 74 days. Kathleen Goff (University of Iowa) won the award for the best student poster, and Rastko 75 Marković (University of Novi Sad, Serbia) won the award for the best student oral paper. The last two 76 days of the conference involved field trips to sites in western Wisconsin. The trips included 13 stops, 77 most of which were exposures or backhoe pits in loess or related sediments (Fig. 1). 78 After the meeting, the conference organizers were approached by Quaternary Research and 79 Aeolian Research about developing special issues for these journals, dedicated to topics focusing on 80 loess. This paper represents the Introduction to the special issue for Quaternary Research. The goals of 81 this paper are (1) to provide brief summaries of some of the current approaches/strategies used to 82 study loess deposits, and (2) in so doing, highlight some of the ongoing work on loess in various regions 83 of the world. Numerous examples from, and reviews of, some of the world’s major loess deposits are 84 discussed first, to provide context. We hope that these summaries, written by a selection of the world’s 85 most prominent loess researchers, will not only highlight the fascinating world of loess research, but 86 also draw attention to loess-related questions, approaches and methods that may form the basis of 87 future research. 88 We wish to thank the many people who helped to make the Eau Claire LoessFest a success, 89 especially Doug Faulkner, Garry Running, and Kent Syverson of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 90 John Attig of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, and Kristine Gruley and Joseph 91 Mason of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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