Aeolianite, calcrete/microbialite and karst in southwestern Australia as indicators of Middle to Late Quaternary palaeoclimates

Abstract

The mid-Late Pleistocene and Holocene aeolianites of the Tamala Limestone on the northern Swan Coastal Plain in southwestern Western Australia consist of six members that show cyclic deposition of coastal aeolianite, overlain by calcrete/microbialite, karstified surface and palaeosol. Field work, combined with mineralogical, chemical, stable isotope analysis and uranium-thorium (U/Th) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, provides an insight into the repetitive glacial and interglacial climatic periods over the past 500 kyr. Deposition of the carbonate aeolianites occurred during interglacial episodes (marine isotope stage (MIS) 1, 5, 7, 9, 11, and possibly 13), due to migratio..