Secular and catastrophic processes reflected in sediments of the Suchedniów water reservoir, Holy Cross Mountains (Poland)

Abstract

The Suchedniów water reservoir is located in the central section of the River Kamionka in the northern part of the Holy Cross Mountains of central Poland. This area once belonged to the Old Polish Industrial District that, during the Middle Ages, was very intensively developed by iron metallurgy. Many forges and mills along the rivers used water power, which led to the construction of an anthropogenic, small-scale water retention system. At the beginning of the twentieth century many of these reservoirs were drained after the collapse of metallurgical activities. The present-day reservoir was built in 1974 and drained in 2017. Research into the drained basin has documented various forms and sediments, some of which record present-day depositional processes (fire proof clay layer, inland fan delta), while others represent the historical period (lacustrine sediments of older reservoirs). Traces of catastrophic events have been preserved as well; an assemblage of megaripples marks the sudden drainage caused by a dam break in 1974.

Sedimentological and geochemical traces of metallurgical activity in the Świślina River valley (central Poland) at the Doły Biskupie site

“…This is confirmed by their location in the middle and upper part of the profile, above the clear flood sandy layer, which may signal fluvial events and changes in the Świślina basin. The redeposition process of microscopic artefacts in Świślina could be similar to those at the Czarna Konecka River (Przepióra et al, 2021), where only a few spherules were found in young delta sediments (i.e., washing out the spherules from alluvia and river incision in older sediments without microartefacts). A large water reservoir built upstream from the study site at the beginning of the twenty-first century may currently restrict the delivery of the material, so iron spherules found in profile may have been deposited later during the catastrophic floods, for example, rupture of a dam in 2001 (cf.…”

“…Further research in the Świślina River using new methods revealed changes in sediments, indicating new possibilities of interpreting the results obtained (Kalicki et al 2021a(Kalicki et al , 2021b, and attempted to relate them to prehistoric or contemporary anthropogenic factors. These studies could be used as comparative material from other sites, where similar analyses in the OPID area have already been carried out (Przepióra et al 2019(Przepióra et al , 2021(Przepióra et al , 2022a(Przepióra et al , 2022bKalicki et al 2021cKalicki et al , 2023 and will continue in the future.…”

Microscale iron spherules as a trace of metallurgical activity in Old-Polish Industrial District river valleys

“…Outcrops of bottom sediments were made during hydrotechnical works (dredging) in 2017 (Przepióra et al 2019) (Fig. 4A).…”

“…In the 21st century, much attention is being paid to the anthropogenic transformation of fluvial systems (Kalicki 2006;Xing et al 2014;Gibling 2018;Elznicova et al 2021), especially in intensively industrialized areas in the past or present, such as North Rhine-Westphalia and Benelux (Quik et al 2020), the Po River basin (Brandolini & Cremaschi 2018), some sections of large river valleys in the USA (Skalak et al 2013), or the Upper Silesian and Old-Polish Industrial District (OPID) (Przepióra et al 2016;Rutkiewicz & Malik 2018;Kalicki et al 2019aKalicki et al , 2020Fularczyk et al 2020;Przepióra 2021). Increasingly, the scale of anthropogenic pressure and its impact on fluvial processes, as well as the structure and sediments of floodplains, are being assessed through the prospect of the occurrence of various objects and pollutants of anthropogenic origin in sediments (Kalicki et al 2019a(Kalicki et al , 2020Rutkiewicz et al 2019;Houbrechts et al 2020;Hrubý et al 2021;Kiss et al 2021;Przepióra et al 2021Przepióra et al , 2022.…”

Historical and contemporary transformations of the hydrographic confluence at Sielpia

“…Rutkiewicz, Malik 2019) and the transformation of the fluvial environment (e.g. Kłusakiewicz et al 2016;Chrabąszcz et al 2017;Przepióra, Kalicki 2018;Kalicki et al 2019c;Przepióra et al 2019;Fularczyk et al 2020a, b;. In previous publications concerning the reservoir in Sielpia (Aksamit et al 2019;Kalicki et al 2021), the cartographicgeomorphological method, which would allow capturing changes in the hydrographic network in this area, has not been applied (see Kalicki, Plit 2003).…”