September to October 2025, the LION project team carried out a comprehensive field campaign in the Kashmir Valley, northern India. The fieldwork brought together all project partners and local collaborators to investigate the loess–paleosol sequences, and to obtain new insights into the Quaternary climate evolution of this climatically and hydrologically sensitive area.

The main objective of the campaign was to improve our understanding of the drivers of precipitation patterns in northern India, and their possible effect on groundwater changes. Field observations and stratigraphic descriptions revealed that several well-developed paleosols occur within the studied sequences. These paleosols, characterized by dark brown to reddish colors, indicate formation under warm and humid interglacial conditions. Such features provide valuable evidence for reconstructing paleo-precipitation and changes in the local water availability. A particularly promising outcome of the campaign was the identification and sampling of a new loess–paleosol section near Mattan. Preliminary observations and pedostratigraphy suggest that this section preserves a continuous sedimentary record extending back to approximately 300.000 years, offering an exceptional opportunity to study long-term climate fluctuations.

This successful field campaign marks a significant step toward achieving the LION-ii project goals of reconstructing regional paleoclimate variability and understanding the mechanisms that have shaped precipitation patterns across the broader Eurasian region during the Quaternary.