Review of the sedimentary types and stratigraphic positions of the pleistocene glacial diamictons in the Bełchatów mine (Kleszczów Graben, Central Poland)

The Qua ter nary over bur den of the gi ant Be³chatów brown coal mine has pro vided – and still pro vides – one of the world’s best ex po sures of Pleis to cene gla cial sedi ments. The ex cep tional geo logi cal set ting – a gra ben that has been ac tive from the be gin ning of the Al pine orog eny – pro vides con di tions for pres er va tion of ter res trial gla cial de pos its that are unique. Out crops in Pleis to cene glaciation- related sedi ments are com monly small, but the well pre served gla - cial sedi ments in the Be³chatów mine can be stud ied with out sig nifi cant in ter rup tions in the walls for sev eral kilo me - ters. In ad di tion, the on go ing ex ploi ta tion pro vides an op por tu nity to ob tain a 3-D pic ture of the fa cies and fa cies tran si tions that have no coun ter part else where. The stra tigraphic re la tion ships be tween a large number of gla cial and in ter gla cial units, some of which have a lim ited lat eral ex tent, could thus be un rav eled. It ap pears that the gla cigenic suc ces sion com prises at least eight (but proba bly more) stra tigraphic lev els with gla cial dia mic tons, thus re cord ing an un matched his tory of a gla ci ated area.