Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences Turkish J Earth Sci (2013) 22: 359-375 http://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/earth/ © TÜBİTAK Research Article doi:10.3906/yer-1205-10

Revisiting the genesis of red Mediterranean soils

1,† 2,3, Nicolas FEDOROFF , Marie-Agnès COURTY * 1 Retired from Agrotech, Paris, France 2 CNRS-UPR 8532 PROMES Procédés et Matériaux Solaires. Rambla de la Thermodynamique. Tecnosud. 66100 Perpignan, France 3 Instiut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i EvoluciÓ Social. Universitat Rovira i Virgil, Plaza Imperial. C/ESCORXADOR, s/n. 43003 Tarragona, Spain

Received: 27.05.2012 Accepted: 09.01.2013 Published Online: 06.05.2013 Printed: 06.06.2013

Abstract: This work, aside from being a classical discussion on the processes of rubefaction and illuviation, is an attempt to cross the abundant literature on red Mediterranean soils (RMSs) written by pedologists, and also by paleopedologists and geologists, with the climatic frame established by paleoclimatologists for the Quaternary. Such an approach leads us to consider that the development of the RMSs was discontinuous, occurring during periods of environmental stability, i.e. interglacials, characterized by a humid climate (precipitations exceeding evapotranspiration) with dry and hot summers. The impact of glacial intervals on the RMS covers is presently only partially documented. Aeolian processes during atmospheric instability episodes played a dominant role; however, hydric erosion and resedimentation cannot be ignored. Severe wind storms have reworked the RMS covers locally, but long distance dusts were also incorporated into the soils. Outbursts are proposed to explain the disruption observed in pre-Holocene red B horizons. Calcite from aeolian dusts was dissolved in surface horizons and recrystallized in deeper horizons in the form of discrete features and calcrete. During the more humid phases of these intervals, RMS became waterlogged in presently humid areas of the Mediterranean basin. The impact of frost on the RMS covers has been exaggerated. Precise correlations between the climatic fluctuations identified by paleoclimatologists and features and facies in the soil covers generated during the glacial intervals are almost impossible to establish.

Key Words: Rubefaction, illuviation, behavior of red Mediterranean soils during glacial intervals

1. Introduction observed on any type of hard bedrock as well as on any Pedologists, geologists, and geographers recognized type of unconsolidated sediment. They differ from tropical long ago that red colors characterize the soil covers of red soils by their lower iron oxide content and mixed clay the Mediterranean basin (Ramann 1911; Blanck 1930; minerals, whereas in the tropics, only kaolinite is present. Reifenberg 1947; Kubiëna 1953; Boulaine 1984). Many The basic soil-forming processes responsible for the detailed monographs of the red Mediterranean soils genesis of RMSs, i.e. rubefaction and clay illuviation, are (RMSs) have been produced (e.g., Atalay 1997; Bech et presently well understood. However, the environmental al. 1997; Darwish & Zurayk 1997; Yassoglou et al. 1997; factors required for rubefaction are not quite clearly perceived. RMSs, when not eroded, appear as texture- Noulas 2009). RMSs located on stepped fluvial and contrasted soils characterized by an argillic horizon marine terraces have attracted many pedologists and according to the USDA (1999), or an argic in the IUSS paleopedologists, especially in southern Italy (Sevink Working Group of the FAO (2006); however, in many et al. 1982; Scarciglia et al. 2006; Sauer et al. 2010), as of these argillic (argic) horizons, clay coatings could not have those buried in alluvial fans (Günster & Skowronek be identified (Reynders 1972; Bresson 1974). Pedogenic 2001; Ortiz et al. 2002; Carboni et al. 2006; Magliulo et carbonates occur frequently in RMSs, the role of which al. 2006; Zembo 2010; Wagner et al. 2012) or intercalated is also not fully understood. The origin of the RMSs’ within eolianites (Elhajraoui 1985; Muhs et al. 2010). parental material has also been widely discussed in terms Many specific soil-forming processes have never been of autochthonous vs. allochthonous (Bronger & Bruhn- detected in RMSs; however, they are clearly related to the Lobin 1997; Muhs et al. 2010). In the first section, we will Mediterranean basin and also to areas of the world affected review the literature on parental materials and on the soil- by a Mediterranean type of climate (Yaalon 1997). Most forming processes occurring in RMSs. of the RMSs infill karst of hard limestones and dolomites The theory of uniformitarianism, i.e. that the present is (e.g., Atalay 1997; Bech et al. 1997), but they can be the key to the past, applied to pedology by Marbut (1935), * Correspondence: [email protected] † Deceased 14 February 2013. 359 FEDOROFF and COURTY / Turkish J Earth Sci supports most of the investigations of the genesis of RMSs. According to this theory, soils are supposed to develop 1 linearly under the influence of environmental factors until they reach an equilibrium with prevailing environmental conditions, the steady state. Anomalies observed in 2 applying to soils the theory of linear development had led to the introduction of subsidiary concepts, such as the threshold concept, which explains abrupt changes in the 3 soil development in the absence of environmental change (Yaalon 1971) as well as the feedback system (Yaalon 1983), which is supposed to be the result of soil internal evolution. Most papers on the genesis of RMSs are based on such an approach, even some that are recent, e.g., Recio Espejo et 4 al. (2008). Lobeck (1939) pointed out that geomorphic processes are periodic and soil development is related to them. Ehhart (1956) proposed the theory of biorhexistasy, which supposes an alternation of periods of soil formation followed by episodes of soil erosion. Butler (1959) and 5 Hack and Goodlett (1960) also provided evidence that soil development and erosion have been periodic and are driven by episodic geomorphic processes. Bockheim et al. 6 (2005) considered that soil development and erosion have been periodic rather than continuous. Sequences in which 7 red paleosols are intercalated in loess (Günster et al. 2001) or eolianites (Muhs et al. 2010) have been investigated (Figure 1). In the second section, based on the now well- Figure 2. Cumulic RMS. Morocco, Casablanca. Thomas Quarry, accepted theory that soil development is the long-term south Sidi Abderrahmane section. From top to bottom: 1) plow layer, 2) B horizon, 3) IIB horizon, 4) gravelly layer, 5) IIIB result of an alternation of the pedogenic phases and of horizon, 6) in situ argillic B horizon characterized by red clay episodic soil cover disruption and erosion, we will try to set coatings and infillings, 7) partially dissolved eolianites. the rubefaction–illuviation phase within pedosedimentary cycles (Fedoroff et al. 2010) (Figures 2 and 3). The concept of pedosedimentary cycles supposes a close integration of i.e. long-term climatic fluctuations, glacial vs. interglacial, the impact on soil covers of environmental fluctuations, and abrupt environmental crisis (Dansgaard et al. 1993; Sanchez Goñi et al. 2002; Hemming 2004; Martrat et al. 2004).

2. Origin of RMS parental materials This origin has been debated for decades and is still controversial. Many pedologists (e.g., Reifenberg 1947; Dudal et al. 1966) considered that terra rossa on limestone was developed on the residuum of the dissolution of the parental bedrock. Glazovskaya and Parfenova (1974) admitted that slope colluviums can also contribute to RMSs. However, Kubiëna (1953) envisaged an enrichment of terra rossa by aeolian materials. This approach was developed by Yaalon and Ganor (1973), and then by Rapp (1984) and Yaalon (1997). This assumption was not easy to demonstrate, due to loessic additions to soils in the loess belt. Specific features and facies due to dust-like loess 50 cm cannot be detected in the field as well as in thin sections; however, more sophisticated techniques have enabled Figure 1. Red sands intercalated between 2 cemented, cross- the identification of the input of aeolian dust in RMSs. bedded eolianites. Morocco, Atlantic coast, north of Rabat. MacLeod (1980) compared the low siliceous residue in

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We can consider that the input of African dust in 1 RMSs is presently accepted by pedologists. However, the following remarks have to be made about the published results on this subject: • Authors refer to present day conditions of aeolian 2 erosion and dust transportation considering that in the past the parental materials of RMSs accreted during interglacials (Muhs et al. 2010). What happened to RMS covers during glacial periods during which many severe wind storms occurred? Andreucci et al. (2011) determined that the Saharan dust input in northwestern Sardinian (Italy) buried red paleosols/sediments, together with local materials, via trace element analyses and the presence of palygorskite and rounded-indented quartz grains. • The forms in which desert dusts, e.g., clay coatings, 3 are incorporated to RMSs were never investigated. • RMSs are often associated with secondary calcitic 4 discrete or continuous (calcrete) features, which are considered by many authors to also be aeolian in origin (Kapur et al. 1990; Goodfriend et al. 1996; Kubilay et al. 5 1997; Kapur et al. 1998; von Suchodoletz et al. 2009). The Figure 3. Red Mediterranean B horizon covered by aeolian relationships between the accretion of calcite-free and sands. Morocco, vicinity of Rabat, Chaperon rouge section. From calcite-rich dusts in RMSs have never been investigated. top to bottom: 1) A1 horizon, 2) very weakly developed Bt in Recently, Diaz-Hernandez and Parraga (2008) upper sands, 3) gravelly layer containing Aterian artifacts, 4) mentioned microspherulites (60–90 µm in diameter) lower sands, 5) argillic B horizon. sampled in the Granada Depression, consisting of complex mineral assemblages and also containing biological carbonate bedrock with the grain size distribution in terra remains (plants, silica shells, plankton), which may also rossa to infer an aeolian origin for these soils in Greece. contribute to the genesis of RMSs. Courty et al. (2008) Durn et al. (1999), using clay minerals and geochemical described on 2 ends of the Mediterranean basin, in the indicators, concluded that terra rossa in Croatia derives Vera basin (southeastern Spain) and in the eastern Khabur from loessic sediments. Genova et al. (2001), studying basin (northeastern Syria), a dust event at 4 ka BP due to red soils in Sardinia using neutron activation analysis, the fallback of impact ejecta. concluded aeolian additions to these soils. Jackson et al. (1982) utilized oxygen isotopes in quartz to support a 3. Pedogenic processes involved in the genesis of RMSs dominant aeolian origin in the terra rossa soils of Italy, To reach a reliable understanding of the RMSs’ genesis, as did Nihlén and Olsson (1995) in Crete. Delgado et a prerequisite is a good comprehension of the basic al. (2003), who investigated RMSs in southern Spain, soil-forming processes that lead to RMS development, reported mineralogical evidence in favor of a double rubefaction, and clay illuviation. Weathering of parental origin, residue from the bedrock and aeolian. Recently, minerals must also be taken in account. Erel and Torrent (2010) measured the concentrations and 3.1. Rubefaction isotopic composition of Pb and Sr in the Al silicates and Fe Rubefaction is considered to be the leading soil-forming oxides of 2 red soils in the Guadalquivir Basin, from which process in RMSs, essentially because pedologists, but also they concluded that Saharan dust makes up a significant geographers, were and are attracted by the red color of the fraction of the Al silicates and Fe oxides of the studied soils. soils, which has led them to underestimate or even ignore Muhs et al. (2010), by analyzing immobile trace elements other processes that took place and are taking place in in Majorca in red paleosols lying on eolianites, found that these soils. Various explanations for rubefaction have been the noncarbonate fractions of the eolianites have more proposed in the past (e.g., Agafonoff & Graziansky 1933; distinctive Zr/Hf, La/Yb, Cr/Sc, and Th/Ta values than the Marcelin 1947; Reifenberg 1947; Kubiëna 1953). Presently, overlying red soils, which led these authors to conclude the process of rubefaction is quite well understood, but its that African dust may explain the origin of much terra environmental interpretation is still questionable. rossa on carbonate bedrock around the Mediterranean Rubefaction results from the microcrystals (Bresson region. 1974; Mirabella & Carnicelli 1992) in hematite being

361 FEDOROFF and COURTY / Turkish J Earth Sci randomly distributed in the ground mass in association 3.2. Clay illuviation with goethite, and maghemite can be also present. The Tavernier (1957) and many other pedologists (e.g., Torrent content in the iron oxides in RMSs is rather low, less than 1976; Cremaschi 1987) considered clay illuviation as a 5% according to Torrent (1994), and lower than in tropical leading process in RMSs, responsible for the clay-enriched red soils. Torrent et al. (1983) interpreted this difference as subsurface horizon. However, a thin-section analysis of a weaker aggregation in RMSs. Hematite possesses a high most RMSs’ argillic horizons reveals an absence of clay pigmenting power, which masks the goethite. coatings (e.g., Reynders 1972; Bresson 1974) in these We follow Bresson (1976), Schwertmann et al. (1974), horizons (Figure 4). However, in RMSs in which the argillic Torrent and Cabedo (1986), and Noulas et al. (2009), horizon appears free of clay coatings, such features can be who stated that rubefaction occurs and occurred in present in deeper horizons (Figure 5), where they can be surface horizons, and then the rubified material is and identified only at high magnifications. In the weathering was translocated with clays to depth. In monophase, zones of igneous and metamorphic rocks (Penven et al. nonreworked RMSs, the distribution of the red color 1981; Lahmar & Bresson 1987), an accurate analysis under throughout the profile is governed by clay illuviation, and PolM reveals frequent fragments of clay coatings in the more generally by translocation of the particles. Boero and apparently homogeneous red ground mass (Scarcaglia et Schwertmann (1989) supposed that iron is released from al. 2006; Priori et al. 2008). Servat (1966) and Duchaufour primary sources followed by the preferential formation (1977) proposed the concept of “appauvrissement” of hematite over goethite, whereas Bresson (1974) and (surficial depletion), which is supposed to result from Jouaffre et al. (1991) considered that hematite forms subsurface runoff, in order to explain the abrupt contrast essentially from the in situ modification of goethite. in the clay content existing frequently in RMSs between Torrent and Cabedo (1986), on RMSs lying on hematite- A and B horizons. Nevertheless, clay coatings have been free calcarenites, supposed that hematite originated observed in the B horizons of RMSs that are Holocene in mainly from the alteration of the Fe-bearing smectites. age on the northern fringe of the Mediterranean basin: for instance, in Jura (Bresson 1974), in low terraces of the They interpreted the partial loss of the initial goethite as an middle Rhône valley, and in northwestern Spain (Fedoroff alteration to the hematite. Schwertmann and Murad (1983) 1997). also showed the role of pH in the formation of hematite The absence of clay coatings in B horizons of RMSs has vs. goethite, whereas Michalet et al. (1993) pointed out the led to the following hypothesis: 1) self-mixing postulates role of amorphous Al-hydroxy polycations. that illuvial clays are incorporated into the B ground mass The distribution of RMSs around the Mediterranean as soon as they have been deposited as a result of shrink– basin implies that rubefaction is related to Mediterranean swell (Fedoroff 1972; Reynders 1972); 2) the B ground mass types of climate characterized by a hot and dry summer can be churned by the soil fauna (Fitzpatrick 1993), and 3) and a rainy cool winter. As most RMSs are relics of the the high stability of red fersiallitic ground mass prevents past (see Section 6), it is consequently hazardous to use clay dispersion (Lamouroux et al. 1978). Here we explain present-day climatic conditions for interpreting their this absence by the severe reworking that has affected all rubefaction. Bresson (1976), Schwertmann et al. (1982), and Jouaffre et al. (1991) reported rubefaction during the Holocene on the northern fringes of Mediterranean basin. Precipitation reaches 1700 mm and the mean annual temperature is 6 °C at the site studied by Jouaffre et al. (1991). It should be mentioned that soils investigated by these authors are very permeable, desiccating in the summer, sufficient to induce the formation of hematite. A pedoclimate characterized by an excess of drainage, as in karst (Boero & Schwertmann 1989; Boero et al. 1992) or in coarse glaciofluvial sediments with periods of desiccation during summer, seems favorable to rubefaction. 50 µm The impact of vegetal cover burning on rubefaction has been also been studied. Yellowish goethites are readily Figure 4. Typical microstructure of a Mediterranean red dehydrated by heating, and in the presence of organic argillic horizon (high magnification). Algeria, vicinity of matter, they first form a dark reddish brown maghemite; Tlemcen. Dense, irregular packing of rounded to subrounded with further heating, they change into a bright red hematite microaggregates. Dark red, quasi-opaque ferruginous fragments (Terefe et al. 2005; Terefe et al. 2008). randomly distributed in the red ground mass.

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4. Other features and facies present in RMSs The features of dissolution of primary and secondary carbonates as well as various facies of carbonate accretion exist in RMSs, and redoximorphic features and facies can also be present in RMS covers. The secondary carbonates are located in drier regions of the Mediterranean basin, whereas redoximorphic features and facies characterize wetter ones, with some overlapping. The development of both of these features and facies increases with age, weakly developed in the Late Pleistocene and well-developed in the Early Pleistocene. Frost-related features and facies 50 µm have been described even in the core of the Mediterranean basin at sea level. Figure 5. Massive microstructure with residual packing voids 4.1. Carbonate dissolution and accretion in RMSs infilled by yellow illuviated clays near the base of a Mediterranean red argillic horizon (high magnification), half a meter below Pedologists presently agree that carbonate dissolution, previous micrograph. Algeria, vicinity of Tlemcen. primary as well secondary, occurred synchronously with rubefaction and illuviation (Alonso et al. 2004; Carboni et al. 2006). RMSs during erosion and aeolian episodes though the Close and frequently complex relationships exist whole Pleistocene period, except for those that were buried between RMSs and secondary carbonate accumulations immediately after a rubefaction–illuviation phase. Figure (Alonso et al. 2004) (Figure 6). Such RMSs are located 4 illustrates this view point, where rounded to subrounded in regions (Spain, northern Africa, Near and Middle microaggregates have to be considered as wind-winnowed East) presently under subarid climates, whereas RMSs pseudosands and not as fecal pellets, of which they do not under present humid and subhumid climates, such as have the morphology and composition. In Figure 5, the the northern fringe of the Mediterranean basin (France; microaggregates are coalescent, but their initial forms can northern and central Italy), are free of secondary calcium be recognized, whereas some remaining packing voids carbonate. The development and complexity of these are infilled almost totally by translucent illuvial clays. Our secondary calcium carbonate accumulations increase with interpretation of this typical RMS of northwestern Algeria time (Alonso et al. 2004; Badia et al. 2009). Young soils is the following: 1) a RMS cover was deeply disturbed (Holocene and late Pleistocene) contain only discrete, and wind eroded, 2) the red material was locally wind- monophased (sensu Fedoroff et al. 2010), calcitic features, winnowed and redeposited, and 3) later, a very weak clay whereas older ones (Middle and Early Pleistocene) are eluviation affected the reworked red material, whereas characterized by continuous (calcrete) and polyphased translocated clays were trapped in residual packing voids at the base of the B horizon. These illuvial clays cannot be identified in the field or even during a routine thin-section 200 µm analysis. Achyuthan and Fedoroff (2008) described a similar case in southern India.

3.3. Weathering of primary minerals in RMSs 2 Rubefaction is independent of primary and clay mineral weathering. In recent rubified soils, i.e. the Holocene, any weathering is detected, except for some vermiculitization 3 1 of illites (Bresson 1974; Jouaffreet al. 1991; Colombo & 4 Terribile 1994). As the age of the RMS increases, e.g., on stepped terraces, kaolinite tends to dominate (Terhorst & Ottner 2003; Wagner et al. 2007). The weathering of primary minerals, present in gravel beds upon which the Figure 6. Transition red argillic horizon to calcrete. Morocco, RMSs are frequently developed, increases with the age of Casablanca. Thomas Quarry, north Sidi Abderrahmane section. the terrace on which they have been deposited (Billard 1) Thick, clay feature – first phase of clay illuviation; 2) calcitic 1995). The rubified material penetrates into the weathered aggradation; 3) partial calcite dissolution; 4) thin, dusty clay gravel in the form of red clay coatings independently of coatings on secondary calcite surface and in dissolution voids – their degree of weathering (Penven et al. 1981). second phase of clay illuviation.

363 FEDOROFF and COURTY / Turkish J Earth Sci calcitic facies (Alonso et al. 2004; Badia et al. 2009). Kapur embedded in a continuous calcitic ground mass; and et al. (1987) described evolutionary sequences proceeding finally they appear dispersed in this mass. The properties from the Middle to the Early Pleistocene covering a phase in the plain and polarized lights of biotites through all of of sedimentation (from a mud flow) to the final outcome, these stages are preserved. Commonly (Nahon & Ruellan the massive calcrete crust, with the weathered overlying 1975; Millot 1979; Watts 1980; Paquet & Ruellan 1997), red soil. floating quartz is interpreted as a silica dissolution under Two questions have puzzled geologists and pedologists high pH due to the supersaturation of the soil solution in about the secondary carbonates in RMSs, which still pCO2, which leads one to consider the replacement of the remain controversial. The first concerns their origin and red clayey mass, sometimes called epigenesis (Reheis 1988; the processes responsible for their accretion, whereas the Hamidi et al. 2001), as a geochemical process consisting second deals with the effect of carbonates on the host red of the lixiviation (dissolution) of all silicate minerals and material during their accretion. their replacement by calcite. The theory of replacement Different origins of secondary carbonate in RMSs have (epigenesis) implies that silicate lixiviation, including to be considered (Candy & Black 2009): 1) carbonates quartz, was forged supposing a linear soil development. In are leached from upper horizons and accreted in lower fact, RMSs and the related calcitic accretions are a result horizons, the per descendum origin; 2) carbonates are of a cyclic evolution. Each cycle consists schematically of provided by ground water and they can accrete in the the 2 pedogenic phases (Fedoroff et al. 2010): 1) a phase capillary fringe, a per ascendum origin (Recio Espejo et al. of rubefaction, illuviation, and carbonate dissolution in 2008); 3) in the saturated zone, carbonates originate from relation to a climatic period characterized by acid rains leaching of calcareous bedrocks, transported laterally in and precipitations exceeding evapotranspiration; and 2) solution and precipitated when ground water comes close a phase dominated by carbonate accretion. Carbonate to the soil surface and is consequently evaporated; or 4) dissolution affects parental carbonates as well as secondary the deposition of calcium carbonate-rich aeolian dust is carbonates accreted in an earlier phase. The facies of followed by a redistribution in the soil profile by capillary floating quartz is formed during this phase of dissolution. or saturated water. The per descendum origin has to be Low pCO2 water penetrates the pores of secondary calcite refuted as almost all RMSs, when carbonates accreted, that is partially dissolved, especially around quartz grains, were already free of parental carbonates (Ortiz et al. which leads to the floating grain morphology. When the 2002; Alonso et al. 2004). The presence of calcified soils parental material consists of sand grains coated by red and calcretes on parental bedrocks as granites (Ducloux clays, the coatings remain unaltered when the sand grains et al. 1990) or basalts (Hamidi et al. 2001) strengthen the become floating. Such a behavior of clay-coated sand grains aeolian hypothesis. firmly supports the assertion that in floating quartz, the Two facies exist between the host red silicate material embedding calcite is partially dissolved and not the silica. and the secondary carbonates, clearly expressed under On the contrary, the process of host material replacement polarizing microscope: 1) the host material appears as (epigenesis) occurs during a phase of soil saturation by progressively replaced by carbonates, and 2) residual high pCO2 water favoring calcite precipitation, which leads grains, e.g., quartz and feldspars, float within the to a progressive dilution of the host material. A lixiviation secondary calcitic ground mass. The replacement of host of silicate is not invoked. Such an assertion is supported material affects the whole ground mass, including the by the fragmentation followed by the dispersion of biotite coarse fraction in fully calcified horizons dating back to without any alteration of its properties. the Early and Middle Pleistocene (Alonso et al. 2004). 4.2. Redoximorphic features and facies in RMSs Grains appear fragmented (brecciated according to Redoximorphic features and facies are common in RMS Paquet & Ruellan 1997), embedded in a sparitic ground covers. Their development increases with age. The most mass, whereas the replacement of fine mass by carbonates developed features and facies are observed in soils of produced yellowish brown calcite of thick fibrous crystals higher terraces and in buried soils of the Middle and Early (Alonso et al. 2004). In younger calcified horizons, the Pleistocene (Bornand 1978; Elhajraoui 1985; Carboni calcification can be followed in all of its phases from the et al. 2006). These redoximorphic features and facies initial phase of clay coating disruption to the complete occur preferentially in the presently wettest area of the dispersion of the clayey mass in the calcitic ground mass, Mediterranean basin, which implies a mutual exclusion in which yellowish and reddish colors keep the memory of these features and calcitic ones; however, both can be of the host material (Alonso et al. 2004). Biotites in such present in some profiles. At the first stage of development, calcified horizons are characterized at the initial stage a few small, yellowish mottles dispersed in a red ground by the presence of calcitic crystals between exfoliated mass appear, and eventually Fe-Mn concretions appear plates; in the next stage, biotite plates appear separated, (Fedoroff 1997). At the maximum of development, the B

364 FEDOROFF and COURTY / Turkish J Earth Sci horizon appears totally mottled, yellowish, and red, with Aside from truncations, RMS sections, when grayish iron- and clay-depleted tongues in which in the investigated with scrutiny, appear to consist of tongue bottom can be recognized in thin-section silty clay superimposed profiles separated by truncations (Fedoroff intercalations, whereas Fe-Mn concretions can be present 1997; Priori et al. 2008) (Figure 2). In Casablanca quarries on the B horizon (Elhajraoui 1985; Scarciglia et al. 2003a, (Texier et al. 1992; Raynal et al. 2010) in which RMSs 2003b; Terhorst & Ottner 2003; Kühn et al. 2006). are exposed in wide and numerous sections, truncations These redoximorphic features and facies correspond to are evidenced by gravel beds (e.g., the gravelly layer of a seasonal soil water logging, which in the case of their Figure 2 in which Paleolithic tools may be present). In maximum development should have reached the top soil these quarries, thin, truncated (only the base of the argillic and lasted several months. Such water logging supposes horizon is preserved), developed in situ RMSs are present precipitations largely exceeding the soil water filtration. in and just above the karstified eolianites, as in horizon 4.3. Evidence of past frost action in RMSs 6 of Figure 2 (Fedoroff 1997). Laterally, the eolianites are Fossil cryogenic features and facies have been identified covered by a calcrete with a lamellar crust on top, in which in soils of the Mediterranean basin, even at rather low Paleolithic tools were found. Red profiles lying on the elevations. Dimase (2006) in the Sila massif (southern lamellar crust show reworked characters. Italy) at an elevation of 1350 m described sand infilled ice Truncations of buried RMSs can be explained by hydric wedges, whereas Günster et al. (2001) in the Granada basin, erosion as a result of an episode of heavy rains, a rhexistasic between 500–900 m elevation, mentioned cryoclasts and phase sensu Ehhart (1956). However, water-reworked red gelifluction as well as ice wedge infillings. These features pedosediments characterized by layering and variable and facies indicate that frost has penetrated deep into the sorting have been rarely mentioned (Hourani & Courty soils, and even that a permafrost existed, to which the 1997). Instead, reworked RMSs are usually characterized infilled ice wedges testify. At sea level, in the middle and by a homogeneous, and in general rather dense, packing of southern shores of the Mediterranean basin, the absence rounded, well-sorted red microaggregates of coarse silt and of infilled ice wedges means that permafrost has never fine sand in size (Figure 4), which probably results from developed; however, all ante-Holocene RMSs are reworked a winnowing, although a geochemical explanation has (see Section 5). At low elevation, in buried paleosols been proposed for this microaggregation (Michalet et al. formed during glacial intervals, Scarciglia et al. (2003a, 1993). The close relationship existing between in situ RMS 2003b) reported layered silt and clay coatings and vesicular roots and aeolian reworked red soils has to be interpreted pores along the coast of Campania, which resulted from as short-distance transportation. The emptying of karstic the rapid thaw of a thick snow cover in spring according holes and their infilling by reworked red material should to Fedoroff et al. (1981) and consequently characterize a be the result of very powerful winds (Aberkan 1989). more boreal climate than a periglacial. However, in surface However, such an aeolian reworking of RMSs is almost not RMSs, no cryogenic features and facies have ever been mentioned in the literature. Such reworked RMSs along described. the Atlantic coast of Morocco should be considered in a first approximation as a lateral facies of eolianites. 5. Evidence of erosion and severe reworking of RMS Anomalies in the distribution of illuvial clays in covers during Pleistocene red B horizons show that RMS covers have been deeply Pedologists considered that RMS covers, including reworked many times during the Pleistocene (Figures 1 Pleistocene-inherited ones, remained stable, only affected and 2). In situ and almost undisturbed clay coatings exist by the soil forming processes. However, this point of view only in recent (Holocene) argillic B (Bresson 1976), and is far from corresponding to facts recently published. eventually in deep B3t and in C. These anomalies have Red pedosediments have been frequently considered been ignored or misinterpreted. as in situ RMSs. In Mamora (Morocco), Aberkan (1989) Various degrees of deformation, fragmentation, and showed that red layers intercalated in eolianites, earlier dispersion in the ground mass of illuvial clays have been considered as RMSs, are in fact red sediments (see also observed in RMSs. Scarcaglia et al. (2003a), following, e.g., Fedoroff 1997) (Figures 1 and 2). Van Andel (1998) in Catt (1989) and Kemp (1998), described “degenerated” Greece showed the high degree of erosion and redeposition clay coatings, characterized by a disjointed birefringence of red soil covers. fabric. However, most commonly, the illuvial clay features Buried RMSs always appear truncated, except some are fragmented and dispersed in the ground mass. The Holocene ones (Ortiz et al. 2002). Günster and Skowronek abundance and size vary considerably. The ground mass (2001) in the Granada basin observed that an erosion can consist entirely of clay fragments, which can be a few of upper horizons, even frequently only the calcium millimeters in size (Mücher et al. 1972), such a facies being carbonate-cemented horizon, is the sign of a RMS. usually observed just above a calcrete. In the Thomas quarry

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(Casablanca, Morocco), Fedoroff (1997) observed, above 1979; Arduino et al. 1986; Simon et al. 2000; Wagner et al. the in situ RMS root, 2 soils characterized at a microscopic 2007; Sauer et al. 2010). level by (Figure 2) a fine spongy microstructure, small 3. Phases of rubefaction–illuviation correspond to wet fragments of red clay coatings in variable abundance climate, whereas the carbonate accretion is bound to a regularly distributed in the ground mass, and weakly drier one (e.g., Bahia et al. 2009; Wagner et al. 2012). expressed calcitic features. Most frequently, as in the However, a few important points concerning the Thomas quarry, small (from some to 100 µm), birefringent development of RMSs through the Quaternary remain domains in variable abundance are randomly distributed controversial or poorly understood. One of the main in the ground mass (Scarcaglia et al. 2006; Priori et al. controversies concerns the simultaneity of rubefaction– 2008). The identification of these domains as illuvial clay illuviation during the Holocene over the whole fragments supposes thin sections of good quality and an Mediterranean basin as well as during earlier periods. accurate analysis at high magnifications, which explains Rubefaction–illuviation in Holocene soils was reported why most micromorphologists have missed them. mainly on the northern fringe of the Mediterranean Unsorted or poorly sorted silty clay to silty infillings, in basin (Bresson 1974, 1976; Schwertmann et al. 1982; which fragments of illuvial clay can be present, can be Jouaffre et al. 1991) and probably also in Italy (Bini & observed below the truncation line (Kühn et al. 2006; Garlato 1999), whereas Zielhofer et al. (2009) in northern Fedoroff et al. 2010). Tunisia concluded that Holocene soils were not affected by The fragmentation and dispersion of illuvial clay rubefaction. However, Aberkan (1989) mentioned that in features in the RMS ground mass have been interpreted northern Mamora (Morocco), reddish soils characterized as disturbances due to frost, e.g., Ortiz et al. (2002). by impure clay coatings developed on eolianites dated However, this fragmentation has never been observed in from the very Late Pleistocene, whereas Texier et al. RMSs in association with cryogenic features. Moreover, (1992) described more in the interior of the Mamora in comparable fragmented and dispersed illuvial clay features yellow aeolian, carbonate-free sands, and reddish brown have been described in the tropics, e.g., in Cuba (Boulet impure clay coatings, organized in the form of bands that et al. 1985), in the Yucatan (Cabadas et al. 2010), and in were supposed to have been formed during the Holocene. Lanzarote (Canary Islands; von Suchodoletz et al. 2009). Cremaschi & Trombino (1998) in southern Fezzan Consequently, another hypothesis other than frost action (Saharan Libya) reported on rubified soils dating to the is needed to explain this global fragmentation (Fedoroff et Early and Middle Holocene. Gvirtzman & Wieder (2001) al. 2010). Airbursts, such as those envisaged by Courty et in the Sharon plain (Israel) described a weak rubefaction al. (2008), are a good candidate. Sudden and considerable between 10 and 7.5 ka. We will conclude that rubefaction– pressure shook the soils, significantly fragmenting those illuviation occurred all around the Mediterranean basin that were not displaced. Later, the fragile fragmented during the Early Holocene, but was more expressed on its materials were winnowed locally by severe winds following northern fringes. the airburst and were deposited. In the Thomas quarry, the Most authors consider that rubefaction–illuviation spongy microstructure is a result of a packing of winnowed phases occurred during interglacials (Carboni et al. 2006; red fragments rich in illuvial clay, whereas calcitic features Zembo 2010). However, the available data mainly concern are postdepositional. The fragments of illuvial clays present the last interglacial oxygen isotope stage (OIS) 5. Günster in silty clay infillings can be interpreted as resulting from et al. (2001) identified in the Granada basin a rubefaction– a percolation of water loaded with disrupted soil material illuviation phase during OIS 5e, whereas interstadial soils, from above immediately after the soil disruption. according to these authors, are gray to brown in color (7.5–10 YR) and free of clay illuviation. Muhs et al. (2010) 6. Development of RMSs during the Quaternary in Mallorca considered that the red paleosols probably Almost all authors of recent publications on RMSs agree represent interglacials or interstadials, whereas the on the following points: eolianites correspond to glacial periods. Fedoroff (1997) in 1. The development of RMSs was discontinuous through the Mamora (Morocco) described a karstic dissolution of the Quaternary, occurring in the form of pedogenic phases eolianites, on which lies a red argillic horizon, characterized (sensu Fedoroff et al. 2010) characterized by carbonate by red microlaminated clay coatings that are supposed to dissolution, rubefaction, clay illuviation, and episodes date from the last interglacial, and eventually from earlier of erosion and sedimentation, frequently aeolian origin ones (Figure 2). (Figures 2 and 3). According to Ortiz et al. (2002), in the Granada basin, 2. RMSs show an increase, from the Late to Early the Middle Pleistocene OIS 7 (186,000–242,000 BP) was Quaternary, in the reddening of the clay content and in the the most favorable for rubefaction–illuviation, whereas weathering of primary and clay minerals (Remmelzwaal during OIS 9 (301,000–334,000 BP) and OIS 11 (364,000–

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427,000 BP), climatic conditions were less favorable. intervals just because of the climate zoning. In Tunisia Alonso et al. (2010) in the Tormes river basin (central (Zielhofer et al. 2009), the mentioned RMSs could also Spain) distinguished 2 periods, around 200 and 500 ka, have been reworked. We would conclude that rubefaction– favorable for carbonate dissolution and rubefaction– illuviation occurred during interglacials simultaneously illuviation. all around the Mediterranean basin, probably during the In southern Italy, outcropping red soils, some buried, whole Pleistocene. on stepped fluvial and marine terraces offer a good The literature does not provide much information opportunity for understanding the genesis of RMSs about the duration of the rubefaction–illuviation phase. through the Quaternary (Coltorti and Pieruccini 2000; Courty (1994) described in northeastern Syria such Carboni et al. 2006; Magliulo et al. 2006; Scarciglia et al. a phase during the Holocene first climatic optimum, 2006; Sauer et al. 2010; Zembo 2010). According to these whereas Courty et al. (1998) detected a short phase of authors, these soils were formed during interglacials and rubefaction–illuviation that lasted 100 years following the then truncated. In northern Cilento (South Italy) at sea 4000-year cosmic event. Günster et al. (2001) showed in level, Scarciglia et al. (2003a) described a buried RMS that the loess–paleosol sequence of the last interglacial–glacial the authors attributed to OIS 7. Cremaschi and Trombino cycle of the Granada basin that rubefaction associated (1998) in southern Fezzan also suggested that well- with clay illuviation occurred only during OIS stage 5e. expressed red soils have developed during interglacials. As a hypothesis, we propose that rubefaction–illuviation However, in northern Cilento, Scarciglia et al. (2003a) phases lasted a few thousand years based on the high described an OIS 5 paleosol characterized by strong number of microlaminations and the thickness of the hydromorphic characters. clay coatings and their abundance. Macklin et al. (2002), On the contrary, Zielhofer et al. (2009) in northern analyzing fluvial sequences in the Mediterranean basin, Tunisia observed a strong rubefaction (5–7.5 Y/R demonstrated that only during the earlier part of OIS 4/6) in decalcified Bt horizons between 40 and 10 ka, 5e were the Mediterranean landscapes stable, whereas whereas von Suchodoletz et al. (2009) proposed that pronounced landscape changes had already occurred in Lanzarote (Canary Islands), rubefaction–illuviation during OIS 5d (109–111 ka) and most notably at the OIS occurred during OISs 2, 3, 4 and 6, which excludes the boundary of 5b/5a (88 ka). last interglacial. RMSs intercalated between eolianites Relationships between environmental parameters have been intensively studied, dated by many radiometric and the rubefaction–illuviation phases are usually not dates, in the coastal plain of Israel. According to Frechen discussed in detail. Authors just mention that these phases et al. (2004), rubefaction took place in the Carmel coastal correspond to a wet climate, whereas carbonate accretion plain between 140 and 130 ka, at the beginning of OIS 5e, corresponds to a drier one (e.g., Wagner et al. 2012). and then around 80, 65, and 60 ka and between 20 and Calcite dissolution at any depth in RMS profiles means that 12 ka, whereas in the Sharon coastal plain, red soils have the sum of the precipitations exceeded evapotranspiration developed, according to Frechen et al. (2002), between during this phase, whereas the rains were probably acidic. 35 and 25 ka and 15 and 12 ka. However, Gvirtzman and The regular microlamination of clay coatings indicates Wieder (2001) in the same Sharon plain considered that a regular rain distribution of rains without any water the most expressed red soils developed between 40 and excess and also an interannual stability of precipitations. 12.5 ka and later were buried by loess deposited during the However, rubefaction supposes a severe desiccation of Younger Dryas. surface horizons during at least some days/weeks of rather These controversies about the occurrences of the high temperatures during summer. rubefaction–illuviation phases during the Late Pleistocene What happened to RMS covers in the Mediterranean do not result from the climate zoning in the Mediterranean basin during glacial intervals is only partially understood. basin as some authors have supposed, but are probably The memory of RMSs related to these intervals has been from a misinterpretation of investigated red soils. Thus, more or less largely erased. Moreover, little research has the red soils (hamra) studied in Israel could be reworked been attempted to analyze the remaining memory of these red soils as those in Mamora (Morocco) formed during intervals in RMSs. Soil development during these intervals an earlier interglacial. Radiometric dates (Gvirtzman is documented only locally, with a high resolution, by & Wieder 2001; Frechen et al. 2004, 2006) provided for studying buried soils (Günster & Skowronek 2001; these hamra soils correspond to their reworking and not to Günster et al. 2001; Scarciglia et al. 2003a, 2003b; Kühn et their genesis. Von Suchodoletz et al. (2009) for Lanzarote al. 2006). The available results principally concern the last admitted that the investigated red layers are colluvial. glacial interval (from OIS 5d to 2). Based on this literature, These authors suggested that the genesis of corresponding soil and landscape evolution appear to be characterized by: in situ red soils could have occurred during glacial 1) a great instability of soil covers and even of landscapes,

367 FEDOROFF and COURTY / Turkish J Earth Sci

2) being affected by various soil forming processes, and 3) be interpreted as wind-winnowed RMS. Calcitic nodules short periods of soil development (Günster et al. 2001). (not seen in the photograph) present in these B horizons, The thick, yellow, microlaminated clay feature of Figure 7 is especially in the IIIB, also indicate calcite-rich dust falls. an example of clay illuviation during glacial intervals. This A thick, polyphased, weakly disturbed, dark red argillic feature indicates that during these intervals, rubefaction horizon (just its top is seen in the photograph), which was replaced by brunification; more humid and cooler developed on the eolianites and is deeply karstified, is temperatures favored goethite formation and probably the truncated and covered by sands (Figure 3). These aeolian, replacement of hematite by goethite. The great thickness of calcite-free sands were deposited during 2 episodes, this feature is also typical for these intervals (e.g., Scarciglia separated by a gravely layer. The upper sands are coated by et al. 2003a, 2003b; Kühn et al. 2006). thin, rare, yellowish red clays. This clay illuviation phase The instability of soil covers is evidenced by soil could be Holocene. These 3 photographs give an idea of truncations, which are mentioned by all authors the complex history during the Quaternary of the Atlantic in sequences of buried soils. Aeolian erosion and coast of Morocco, during which have alternated phases of sedimentation in the form of loess and locally winnowed the RMS genesis, some very marked as in Chaperon rouge red soils have extensively affected Mediterranean soil (Figure 3) and aeolian episodes, as well as an episode of covers. Loess in which fragments of RMSs can be present hydric erosion characterized by gravelly layers. have been described in northern Italy (Cremaschi 1987; The fragmented illuvial clays within the ground mass Billard 1995), in northeastern Spain (Mücher et al. 1990), and even the absence of any illuvial features in most in southern Spain (Günster et al. 2001), in southern ante-Holocene RMSs have to be related to this landscape Tunisia (Coudé-Gaussen & Rognon 1988), and in Israel instability due to hydric erosion, but essentially to very (Dan 1990). Coudé-Gaussen and Rognon (1988) and severe wind storms. We have suggested above that an Mücher et al. (1990) insist on the local origin of aeolian initial shock in the form of an outburst is responsible for sediments. Along shorelines, red layers consisting of the soil disruption, followed by very severe wind storms wind-reworked RMSs are frequently intercalated (Figure 1) with eolianites, but most geoscientists (e.g., Muhs that displaced the disrupted soils and also by some heavy et al. 2010) considered them as being RMSs formed in rains responsible for the truncations. The hypothesis situ. Figures 1, 2, and 3 represent the most typical cases that periglacial thixotropy was responsible for this soil of the relationship existing between eolianites and RMSs disruption (e.g., Scarciglia et al. 2003a, 2003b) must on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. In Figure 1, a red consequently be abandoned. The worldwide distribution, layer intercalated between 2 eolianites, which could be including the tropics, is a strong argument in favor of this considered as a RMS, is in fact a severely wind-eroded abandonment. RMS and was transported as red-coated sands in which 6.1. Soil-forming processes affecting RMS covers during almost no in situ pedofeatures are present. In Figure 2, glacial intervals only the very base of the section is an in situ RMS, whereas The translocation of the silt fraction is characterized the ground mass of the upper 3 B horizons consists of a by bleached tongues and at a microscopic level by silty dense packing of rounded microaggregates, which must features, but most frequently by more or less regular silty and clayey layers (Scarciglia et al. 2003a, 2003b). According to Fedoroff et al. (1981), this translocation of silt and silt and clay results from the rapid thaw of a thick snow cover in the spring and consequently characterizes a boreal climate without a deep soil frost rather than a periglacial one with a permafrost. Such silty features in the Mediterranean basin at sea level have never been observed as associated with fossil ice wedges or even fossil ice lenses. The accumulation of organic matter has been observed in the form of gray to grayish brown Ah horizons (Günster et al. 2001) and at a microscopic level as dark brown to brownish black, thick, dusty, unlayered infillings (Scarciglia et al. 2003a, 2003b). The chemical 200 µm and mineralogical compositions of these infillings have Figure 7. Thick, yellow, microlaminated clay feature in yellowish never been microanalyzed. Under PolM, the dark color is brown argillic horizon on eolianites. Morocco, Atlantic coast, interpreted as being due to black carbon (Fedoroffet al. vicinity of Rabat. 2010). Guo (1990) identified such blackish infillings in

368 FEDOROFF and COURTY / Turkish J Earth Sci loess in the Loess Plateau in China at the transition OISs a subsurface horizon. Such calcitic accretion indicates 5 to 4. Other existing data on black carbon present in a climate in which evapotranspiration exceeds relative sediments and soils were all obtained from bulk samples. precipitations. These data show an increase of black carbon during glacial Paleoclimatologists emphasize the temperature periods (e.g., Luo et al. 2001; Wang et al. 2005). In the fluctuations for which they presently have quite a precise Mediterranean basin, Kühn et al. (2006) and Fedoroff et chronology, especially for the last cycle. Martrat et al. al. (2010) did not relate these infillings to a precise phase (2004) considered that the climate in the Mediterranean or episode; however, Günster et al. (2001) described basin was predominantly maintained in interglacial- paleosols and sediments rich in organic matter due to interstadial conditions, whereas the duration of glacial steppic vegetation, dated at OISs 5a and 5c, and Ferraro et intervals was much shorter. Some of the most prominent al. (2004) described 3 organic matter enriched paleosols events occurred over OISs 5 and 7, after prolonged warm that could have formed during the interstadials of OISs 3 periods of high stability. Sanchez Goñi et al. (2002) and 4. As a hypothesis, we consider that these infillings showed that in the western Mediterranean basin, rapid testify to wildfires of high intensity based on the fact that (approximately 150 years) and synchronous terrestrial the feature is unlayered. and marine climatic changes occurred, paralleling the Redoximorphic features and facies characterizing soil Dansgaard–Oeschger cycle (Dansgaard et al. 1993) with an water logging are weakly developed during the last glacial. amplification of the climatic signal during Heinrich events, According to Günster et al. (2001), impeded drainage an extreme cooling of 10 °C, and a great dryness occurring occurred during OISs 5a and 5c and a few times during OIS during H5 and H4. Sepulchre et al. (2007) confirmed the 2 in the Granada basin, which these authors explained by aridity during H4 over the Iberian Peninsula. Research permafrost. The extrapolation of the permafrost hypothesis performed on paleosols developed during glacial intervals of Günster et al. (2001) to all soils with redoximorphic of course provide information about temperatures, but characters in the Mediterranean basin does not seem also about soil water regimes and consequently about the to be sound. Redoximorphic phases are a worldwide precipitation regime and environmental events such as phenomenon, including the tropics (e.g., Achyuthan & outbursts, severe wind storms, and wildfires for which we Fedoroff 2008). In the Mediterranean basin, at least during do not have modern analogs. the Late Pleistocene, these phases occurred during glacial A correlation of pedological phases and erosion– intervals. These phases postdate the reworking episode soil disruption episodes registered in RMS covers and as redoximorphic features are always superimposed on in buried related paleosols, even for the last glacial with reworked red soil material. Consequently, we consider that environmental events identified by paleoclimatologists, they correspond to a climatic phase of heavy precipitations, is presently almost impossible. Paleosols during glacial during which the soil was water-saturated part of the year, intervals are supposed to develop during a warmer time and as goethite is dominant during these phases, we also span, such as the interstadials (Günster et al. 2001; Ferraro have to suppose a weak seasonal temperature contrast. et al. 2004). Everyone presently agrees that the accretion of calcite The work of Melki et al. (2010) and earlier publications in RMSs was discontinuous and occurred independently demonstrated that sapropels in the eastern Mediterranean of rubefaction–illuviation (Ortiz et al. 2002; Bahia et basin correspond to a strong precipitation increase al. 2009). During the last glacial interval in southern that transformed the whole Mediterranean Sea into a Spain, according to Günster et al. (2001) and Candy and nonconcentration basin. Consequently, the hydromorphic Black (2009), calcite accretion occurred during OIS 5e, phases could be synchronous with the deposition of apparently immediately after the rubefaction–illuviation sapropels. phase. Recio Espejo et al. (2008) obtained, for 350 ky, a deep calcic horizon, and for 8.9 ky, nodules present in the 7. Conclusions Bt horizon. Dating calcite accretion phases is ambiguous. RMSs are the result of 2 major soil-forming processes, Existing radiometric dates were frequently obtained rubefaction and illuviation, occurring in soils in which eventually on secondary and even tertiary crystallization. infiltration exceeds evapotranspiration, also inducing The aeolian origin of calcite in RMSs is not accepted carbonate dissolution and its lixiviation out of the profile. unanimously and, consequently, we will consider it just Rubefaction results in an alteration of goethite into as a sound hypothesis. An aeolian origin of calcite means hematite in surface horizons, which is distributed through severe wind storms that induce aeolian erosion in areas the whole profile by clay illuviation. rich in outcropping carbonate rocks, dust transportation, Most authors agree that RMSs were formed and deposition, followed by the dissolution of calcitic discontinuously during periods of environmental stability, particles in RMS surface horizons and crystallization in i.e. interglacials. The behavior of RMS covers during glacial

369 FEDOROFF and COURTY / Turkish J Earth Sci intervals is just beginning to be deciphered. A large part of have to be clarified. the features and facies formed during these intervals are The impact on Mediterranean soil covers of severe presently erased, but those remaining were not investigated cold episodes, which were supposed to be characterized thoroughly and were in most cases misinterpreted. by permafrost, has been exaggerated. Features related to Presently, from the point of view of soil covers, it is possible permafrost have never been identified in RMS covers at to conclude that during these intervals: 1) episodes of sea level; however, they appear at a rather low altitude in instability happened in the form of abrupt events during the Mediterranean basin, e.g., 1000 m. At sea level, textural which soils were eroded and disrupted; 2) important dust features corresponding to a thick snow cover exist, but falls, locally in the form of loess, occurred; and 3) various without a deep soil frost. pedogenic phases took place. The existing data do not Heinrich events are presently almost impossible to enable the establishment of a clear hierarchy between the establish for the correlation of episodes of soil instability features and facies, witnesses of each of these episodes and as well as pedogenic phases that occurred during glacial phases. RMS covers were partially and frequently totally intervals with OISs. Earlier pedogenic phases were utilized eroded, but the most striking phenomenon is the in situ to define interstadials with warmer periods during a glacial disruption of almost all pre-Holocene RMSs. The RMS period. As ice cores have shown that 24 interstadials can disruption is largely underestimated in the literature, which be referred to as Dansgaard–Oeschger events during the leads one to consider disrupted RMSs as in situ developed last glacial interval, a new correlation between these events soils as well as red pedosediments. Consequently, various and the pedogenic phases has to be established. soil-forming processes, e.g., self-mixing by shrink–swell, This work shows also that RMS covers (including were advanced to explain the absence of clay coatings in B buried soil–sediment sequences) contain novel data that horizons of RMSs. During the glacial intervals, RMS covers are not present (or are present in a different form) in ice were also affected by dust falls, which are responsible for cores, lakes, and deep sea cores. The data in soil covers the calcitic features and facies present in the RMSs of concern not only mean temperatures and precipitations, subarid areas of the Mediterranean basin. The enrichment but also the thickness of the snow cover, outbursts, severe of organic matter, eventually due to wildfires, has also been wind storms, and wildfires. Unfortunately, investigations mentioned during these intervals. performed on the memory preserved in surface RMSs and Redoximorphic features and facies exist in RMS in buried soil–sediment sequences of the Mediterranean covers. The recent ones, weakly developed, occurred basin are far behind those on ice cores, lakes, and deep with no doubt during the last glacial period, whereas the sea cores. In the future, such investigations should be environmental conditions of well-developed, earlier ones undertaken, providing novel and exciting results.

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