This study presents an overview of Middle Pleistocene loess–palaeosol sequences (LPS) in northern France and discusses the palaeoclimatic significance of the pedosedimentary record in the context of western European LPS and of global climatic cycles for the last 750 ka. In this area, the oldest loess deposits (early Middle Pleistocene) are preserved in sedimentary traps (leeward scarps of fluvial terraces and dissolution sinkholes). They result from local deflation processes reworking Pleistocene sandy fluvial deposits or relicts of Tertiary sands. A large extension of typical calcareous loess over the landscape, the Loess Revolution, is then observed during MIS 6, with heavy mineral assemblages testifying to long-distance transport from the polar desert area of the dried eastern Channel. A correlation scheme is proposed between the global records of northern France in continental environments and both global palaeoclimatic records and other main western European LPS. After 30 years of research, northern France LPS stand as a fundamental archive of the impact of interglacial–glacial climatic cycles as well as millennial events. Finally, these works provide a robust chronoclimatic framework for the study of the western European Late Acheulean and Middle Palaeolithic and for the relative dating of the various fluvial terraces that they fossilise.

中文翻译：

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法国北部黄土-古土壤序列的最后 750 ka：西欧旧石器时代的环境背景和年代

本研究概述了法国北部中更新世黄土-古土壤层序 (LPS)，并讨论了过去 750 ka 西欧 LPS 和全球气候循环背景下沉积记录的古气候意义。在该地区，最古老的黄土沉积物（中更新世早期）保存在沉积圈闭（河流阶地的背风陡坡和溶解落水洞）中。它们是由局部通货紧缩过程改造更新世砂质河流沉积物或第三纪砂岩遗迹造成的。典型的石灰质黄土在景观上的大面积延伸，黄土革命，然后在 MIS 6 期间观察到，重矿物组合证明从干燥的东部海峡的极地沙漠地区进行长途运输。提出了在大陆环境中法国北部的全球记录与全球古气候记录和其他主要西欧 LPS 之间的关联方案。经过 30 年的研究，法国北部 LPS 已成为间冰期-冰期气候循环和千年事件影响的基本档案。最后，这些作品为西欧晚期阿舍利和旧石器时代中期的研究以及它们形成化石的各种河流阶地的相对年代学提供了一个强大的年代气候框架。