Loess and Quaternary deposits in the Trebbia area (Piacenza)

Loess deposits at the Apennine fringe lie on the of terraces cut into early-Middle Pleistocene continental deposits. They cover both strongly rubified vetusols and strips of erosional surfaces (piedmont glacis). In the Ghiardo site loess of the late Middle Pleistocene includes at its base a late Acheulean archaeological site, in which an hearth, and areas of lithic waste have been identified; artifacts are associated with pollens and charcoals of cold wooded grassland. The Middle Pleistocene loess has been affected by strong weathering leading to the development of a strongly clayey soil with lhydromorphic and vertic proprieties and of a fossil gilgai .relief. A thin layer of Upper Pleistocene loess covers the profiles, and it is included in the E horizon of the planosol which is the result of the present pedogenesis in the area. In fluviatile terraces of the Trebbia valley, a chronosequence of three different vetusols, ranging from the Early to the late Middle Pleistocene, has been described. The fluviatile terraces are covered by three different loess sheets ranging from the Middle to the Upper Pleistocene. Loess deposits are also recorded on, the paleosurfaces in the Apennine fringe, while at higher altitudes periglacial and glacial landforms occur dating back to the Upper and late Middle Pleistocene.