Date 07 October 2008.  Twin Peaks or the Eden Effect.  Dennis Eden published a paper in Boreas in 1980 about the loess in Essex. He carried out some particle size analyses using a Coulter Counter at the University of East Anglia. It is possible that these were the first published Coulter Counter analyses of loess material; anyway they revealed the twin peaks effect. It appeared that the loess was distinctly bimodal. Fast forward to 2006 and the INQUA Loess Sub-Commission meeting in Novi Sad, Voyvodina and we see the twin peaks effect again. A poster prepared by Bjoern Machalett of loess from Kazakhstan shows the twin peaks in the size distribution curve; modes at about 20 and 40 microns. During this meeting Ken O'Hara-Dhand collected some loess samples from the Ruma brickworks and from the Titel Plateau- and these, when analysed showed the twin peak effect. Speculation therefore that this is a fundamental aspect of quartz silt- a current idea is that the crystallography of quartz is such that when it is deformed to produce silt two deformation modes operate and two favoured sizes are produced. Bjoern demonstrated the effect again at DEUQUA08- see the Abhandlungen for a brief discussion.

Date 06 October 2008. A very successful 'Danubian Loess' discussion within the DEUQUA meeting in Vienna in September 08. A very successful DEUQUA meeting overall. I report on Monday 02 the local fieldtrip by 38a bus up into the Vienna Woods; walking down to Nussloch. There may be a fieldtrip leaving from Nussloch in 2011 as part of the INQUA Congress- this is the meerest rumour but a fieldtrip on the Danubian loess could start from there. Tuesday 03 a day of papers at BOKU- the Agricultural University of Vienna and dinner at congenial pub afterwards. Wednesday 04 more papers but also a highlight dinner at the Natural History Museum; I was very impressed by the sponsorship by Swiss Re, how enlightened, how encouraging! Thursday 05 the loess field trip and a visit to the Venusium at Willendorf- a good place to celebrate the centenary of the discovery of the Venus of Willendorf in the adjacent loess deposit. Friday 06 discussions on next years LoessFest in Novi Sad, the programme takes shape. 14 euros for a weeks travel on Vienna's fantastic trams; if cities were judged by tramway systems Vienna would win easily.

Date 8th March 2008. News has just reached us from Beijing of the death of Liu Tung-sheng. In the middle years of the 20th Century Liu and his colleagues, working on the great loess deposits of North China, changed the face of Quaternary studies. At the famous INQUA Congress in Poland in 1961 Liu demonstrated the multiple palaeosols of the Chinese loess and demonstrated the remarkable complexity of the Quaternary period. Loess stratigraphy as we know it was born; a whole new vision of loess research came into view- and it was Liu drawing aside the curtain. We salute him and celebrate a great life.

Date 12th December 2007.  Loess Letter 59 is in preparation. It should be ready early in 2008. Library copies will be sent out accompanied by LL58. LL59 celebrates mostly the publication of the INQUA Loess Map of Europe, but also a Fink anniversary (Julius Fink 1918-1981) and a Keilhack anniversary (Friedrich Ludwig Heinrich Konrad Keilhack 1858-1944) and the 550th birthday of Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg. 2008 is also the centenary of the discovery of the Venus of Willendorf, in a loess deposit at Willendorf, Austria. LL59(being a map issue) also includes the Snark map by Henry Holiday- produced to help the adventurers while they were hunting the Snark.

Date31st July 2007