Search for Pedogenic Phases During the Younger Pleistocene and Holocene (Soltanien and Rharbien) of Tunisia

Abstract

Radiocarbon dates, obtained from paleosols, sediments, fossils, and groundwater samples of North Africa and especially, Tunisia, were investigated for information on phases of pedogenesis throughout the younger Pleistocene and Holocene in north and central Tunisia. This paper evaluates available data, while a larger set of new samples is under study, which, hopefully will exhaust the problem and will reveal whether extrapolations such as those made in this paper, eg, phases of pedogenesis from groundwater data, are correct. Frequency distribution of the dates from groundwaters taken by systematic sampling, as well as from random soil samples from open pits that yielded access to buried paleosols, indicate that organic matter was being produced for 7 or 8 periods. The evidence suggests major pedogenic activity at about 2000 BP, 4000 to 6000 BP, 8000 to 12,000 BP, and perhaps 21,000 to 25,000 BP.