The paleoenvironmental and tectonic history at the southwestern end of the Malé Karpaty Mountains close to Hainburg an der Donau was reconstructed using sediment analysis, mineralogy, and numerical age dating. Numerical ages were constrained by 26Al/10Be burial age dating, 230Th/U ages and luminescence age dating to infer the Pliocene and Pleistocene development of the Hainburg Hills region. This study investigated sediments from two caves separated by a height difference of 92 m as well as aeolian cover sands from a fissure. The cave deposits are very different as one is a carbonate precipitate and the other sediment infill. Both preserve information on the uplift/incision at the Alpine-Carpathian border. The minerals hematite and smectite as well as traces of poorly crystallized iron oxides found in the matrix of the upper (older) cave, suggest formation during warm and humid climate. This is a remnant from the late Miocene or Early Pliocene where soil formed in a subtropical climate.
Stephanie Neuhuber (BOKU Wien): Numerical age dating of cave sediments quantify vertical movement at the Alpine-Carpathian transition
