Geochemical Signatures of Loesses from the Tunka Valley and Oka Basin, South of Eastern Siberia: Comparison with Geochemical Signatures of Loesses from Adjacent Asia

We present results of comparative geochemical studies of loesses in the Oka Basin and in the Tunka Valley. We infer that those, underlying and covering the Ust-Zhom-Bolok lava cover in the Oka Basin, are critical for dating its eruption in the late Pleistocene. We determine a wider range of loess compositions for the Oka Basin than for the Tunka Valley and emphasize a general compositional difference of these loesses, representative for the south of Eastern Siberia, compared to those from China and Yakutia.