Middle Pleistocene (>350 ka) glaciation in the Carpathians unveiled by quartz microtextures from cave sediments (Low Tatra Mountains, Slovakia)

The traces of Early and Middle Pleistocene glaciations are often absent from mountainous landscapes, as repeated ice advances erase older surface records. Here, we present the first direct evidence of Chibanian glaciation in the Western Carpathians based on quartz grain microtextures. Using scanning electron microscopy, we restrictively identify glacigenic grains preserved in dated allochthonous cave clastic sediments from the Demänová Cave System (Low Tatra Mountains, Slovakia) that predate Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 10. Additional well-rounded quartz grains from Triassic rocks suggest glacier activity during MIS 6. This new approach is particularly sensitive to the earliest glacial imprint preserved in karst terrains, as grains found in younger deposits could originate from reworked moraines. Our method offers a new means to detect otherwise missing records of glaciations in regions where conventional geomorphic evidence has been erased.