Fluvial terrace formation in the northern Upper Rhine Graben during the last 20000 years as a result of allogenic controls and autogenic evolution

Abstract

a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f oThe northern Upper Rhine Graben hosts a well-preserved Late Weichselian and Holocene fluvial terrace sequence. Terraces differ in elevation, morphology, and overbank sediment characteristics. The purpose of this study was to determine the relative importance of allogenic controlling factors versus autogenic evolution on the successive formation of these terraces. For a representative valley segment (the Gernsheim region), results from previous research were integrated with newly obtained borehole data and digitized elevation maps to construct palaeogeographic maps and cross sections. Coarse-grained channel deposits below terrace surfaces were dated using Optically Stimulated Luminescence, and fine-grained abandoned channel fill deposits were dated using pollen stratigraphy and radiocarbon analysis. Initiation of terrace formation was caused by climatic change in the Late Pleniglacial (after~20 ka), but fluvial response was complex and slow and continued locally until the middle Boreal (~9 ka). Early to Middle Holocene (~6 ka) changes in fluvial style and associated overbank lithofacies are not necessarily controlled by climatic change as was previously proposed. Instead, autogenic processes combined with river reach-specific factors explain the observed terrace development. Continuous incision, autogenic evolution, and high preservation potential provide an alternative explanation for the presence of a terrace sequence in this subsiding area.

Climate-driven fluvial development and valley abandonment at the last glacial-interglacial transition (Oude IJssel-Rhine, Germany)

“…This sizeinduced difference in (slow) incisional response to climate change has implications for the further concentration of flow in the Lateglacial. The deepening channels of the Central Rhine course would draw increasingly more water from the secondary courses, retarding these secondary systems even more in positive feedback (Cohen, 2003;Busschers et al, 2007;Hijma et al, 2009;Erkens et al 2009;2011). This drove the eventual abandonment and slowly transformed the Oude-IJssel and Niers-Rhine into systems used at flood stage only and then not even flooded anymore -but this process was interrupted by the Younger Dryas climatic cold spell and by events associated with the eruption of the Laacher See volcano some 200 years before the onset of the Younger Dryas.…”

Pinios (Peneus) River (Central Greece): Hydrological — Geomorphological elements and changes during the quaternary

“…Many researchers have focused in morphometric parameters of the riverbeds [14,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23] and fluvial terraces [24][25][26][27] in order to examine the river evolution. The complexity of the Pinios River system, due to both its physical attributes and the geological structure of the area, comprise the epicenter of the current research, with the aim of analyzing the evolution of the river during the Quaternary.…”

Spatio-temporal evolution of the Choisille River (southern Parisian Basin, France) during the Weichselian and the Holocene as a record of climate trend and human activity in north-western Europe

“…[Vandenberghe et al, 1987], [Antoine, 1997], [Pastre et al, 1997] and ) than on large ones with a more complex set of boundary conditions as lithology of substratum, climate and topography (i.e. [Garcin et al, 1999], [Castanet, 2008] and [Erkens et al, 2009]). Studies which analyse and compare upstream to downstream transects across the whole fluvial system are rarer ( [Rose, 1995], [Macklin, 1999], [Houben, 2003], [Orth et al, 2004], [Lespez et al, 2005] and [de Moor et al, 2008]).…”