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The Pleistocene glacial deposits in the Bełchatów mine (central Poland):

 an exceptional record

 A.J. van Loon

Department of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia, Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland; e-mail tvanloon@ultra.cto.us.edu.pl.

 Also: Geocom,P.O. Box 336, 6865 AH Oosterbeek, The Netherlands; e-mail: tom.van.loon@wxs.nl

Abstract

The Quaternary overburden of the giant Bełchatów browncoal mine has provided - and still provides - one of the world’s best exposures of Pleistocene glacial sediments. The exceptional geological setting - a graben that has been active from the beginning of the Alpine orogeny - provides conditions for preservation of terrestrial glacial deposits that are unique. The well preserved glacial sediments can be studied in the walls of the mine providing more or less uninterrupted exposures for several kilometers, and the ongoing exploitation allows us to obtain a 3-D picture of the facies and facies transitions that have no counterpart elsewhere. These exceptional conditions have allowed identification of a glacigenic succession in which at least eight (but more probably 9 and possibly even more) glacial stratigraphic levels can be distinguished, thus recording an unmatched history of a glaciated area.