Report on the Excursion of 10 June 1959 in Namur and Liège

Abstract

Article in French.

ORIGINAL TITLE: Compte rendu de l’excursion du 10 juin 1959, a Namur et a Liege

This report presents the results of a geological field excursion conducted on 10 June 1959 in the Namur and Liège regions of Belgium, aimed at investigating pre-Würm periglacial structures. Four quarries exposing Tertiary sands overlain by Quaternary deposits were examined. The sites display well-developed frost cracks, ice-wedge structures, solifluction sheets, and cryoturbation features. Many sediments consist of strongly rusty material interpreted as reworked Tertiary soils redeposited under early Quaternary periglacial conditions. Frost fissures locally predate the Moselle terrace gravels, while others are younger and linked to solifluction processes. Although the exact age of the Moselle terrace and the rusting remain debated, the observations consistently indicate intense periglacial activity during the early Quaternary and the superposition of warm-climate weathering products and cold-climate depositional processes.