MIS 7!? Comment on Zolitschka et al. (2024) Stratigraphy and dating of Middle Pleistocene sediments from Rodderberg, Germany. Journal of Quaternary Science, 39(7), 1011–1030
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Zolitschka et al. (2024) emphasize the high age of the onset of the Rodderberg crater infill: based on the apparent presence of a particular tephra at the base, they claim Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11.Luminescence ages, however, point to MIS 9. Previously, Zhang et al. (2024) had published mainly significantly younger luminescence ages of the same samples, suggesting a possible MIS 7 age for the lower interglacial.Recently, Van Beirendonck & Verbruggen (2025) also propose a correlation with the MIS 7 interglacial complex for most of the crater infill.MIS 7, 9 or 11?In this correspondence, the authors argue in favour of the MIS 7 hypothesis and raise some questions.Main text: Shortly before and during the review process of Van Beirendonck & Verbruggen (2025), important Rodderberg data became available (Zhang et al, 2024; Zolitschka et al, 2024), which we only recently came to know about.The luminescence ages reported by Zhang et al. (2024, blue in Fig. 1) support within the margins of error the hypothesis of Van Beirendonck & Verbruggen (2025) to correlate the Rodderberg interglacials at 22-38 and 59-69 m composite depth (mcd) with Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 7c-a and MIS 7e, respectively (Fig. 1).A reanalysis by Zolitschka et al. (2024) of samples of Zhang et al. (2024), but in a different laboratory, yielded mainly significantly higher ages (red in Fig. 1).However, both datasets show a slow increase in age with depth, supporting the hypothesis of Van Beirendonck & Verbruggen (2025) of a mean sedimentation rate of c. 1 mm a -1 in the Rodderberg crater between 22-69 mcd during only one interglacial complex.Due to the clear similarity of the sequence of the warm and cold Rodderberg phases with the marine isotope record (e.g.LR04 benthic stack, Lisiecki & Raymo, 2005) and based on their palynostratigraphic framework, Van Beirendonck & Verbruggen (2025) propose a MIS 7 age for this complex, reflected in the curves of Magnetic Susceptibility (MS, Zolitschka & Frechen, 2025c), XRF Principal Component 2 (PC2, Zolitschka &
Source: Journal of Quaternary Science
DOI: 10.1002/jqs.3726
Authors: Filip Van Beirendonck, Cyriel Verbruggen
Institution: Ghent University
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4411134185