The last millennia history of detrital sedimentation in the Lower Seine Valley (Normandy, NW France): review

Abstract

International audiencePost-glacial climate changes and sea-level fluctuations have strongly influenced N-W European environments and sedimentation. To these natural events, increasing anthropogenic pressure has to be added. Forest clearance and agricultural development are the main factors responsible for the erosional processes in Northwest Europe. This article analyses Holocene sequences of the Lower Seine Valley (LSV) (Paris Basin) to understand better the origin of detrital and terrigenous input and how much humans have contributed to it. Three main sectors of the LSV are analysed: estuarine, fluvial and tributaries. Since Neolithic times, there are seven erosional phases that can be identified and essentially linked to human pressure