scholarly journals The confluence area of Rhine, Meuse, and Belgian rivers: Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene fluvial history of the northern Lower Rhine Embayment

2008 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.E. Westerhoff ◽  
H.A. Kemna ◽  
W. Boenigk
Keyword(s):  
Marked Change ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
River Systems ◽  
Accommodation Space ◽  
Lower Pleistocene ◽  
Roer Valley Graben ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lithological Composition ◽  
Lower Rhine Embayment ◽  
Lower Rhine

AbstractThe fluvial history of the northern Lower Rhine Embayment shows interplay of three main river systems: Rhine, Meuse and smaller rivers draining the central and northern part of Belgium.The Pliocene and Early Pleistocene (pre-)Rhine and Meuse river systems had their conjunction in the southern part of the Roer Valley Graben between Aachen and Jülich. Despite slight differences in the heavy-mineral assemblages the lithological composition of the Pliocene deposits of the three river systems shows close resemblance and therefore they cannot be mapped separately. However, due to a marked change of the petrographical composition the Upper Pliocene and Lower Pleistocene deposits of the Rhine are easily recognised and as a result Rhine and Meuse deposits can be mapped separately upstream of their confluence.The Lower Pleistocene deposits of Rhine, Meuse and the Belgian rivers show a clear interrelationship. They are bounded by two regional well-mapable unconformities and are preserved in from west to east changing lithostratigraphical sequences. Revision of the lithostratigraphical schemes in Germany and the Netherlands and the better defined lithostratigraphical position of Meuse deposits in Germany now strongly constrain the correlation of the various fluvial deposits. As a result existing reconstructions of the fluvial deposition and tectonic history of the southern Roer Valley Graben can be evaluated and re-adjusted.It is concluded that the main course of the Meuse was aligned through the so-called East Meuse valley during the larger part of the Early Pleistocene. Available pollen data do not conflict with this conclusion. At the same time the Rhine ceased to enter the southern part of the Roer Valley Graben. Instead, the Meuse accumulated here a series of deposits derived from the East-Meuse valley. Simultaneously, the Belgian rivers filled available accommodation space in the Roer Valley Graben of the southern Netherlands. The conclusions are based primarily on the revised lithostratigraphical framework. In general they simplify the picture of fluvial and tectonic behaviour of the area.

scholarly journals A Revised Stratigraphy for the Pliocene and Lower Pleistocene Deposits of the Lower Rhine Embayment

2008 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.A. Kemna
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Drainage Pattern ◽  
Type Area ◽  
Lower Pleistocene ◽  
History Of ◽  
Key Sites ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Lower Rhine Embayment ◽  
Lower Rhine

AbstractThe Plio-Pleistocene succession in the Lower Rhine Embayment was subjected to a thorough revision of existing stratigraphic concepts. The deposits were studied at key sites in the type area near Venlo and in the large open-cast mine Hambach in the southern part of the Lower Rhine Embayment by means of sedimentological, petrographical, as well as palaeo- and rockmagnetic methods.The work has yielded improved insights of the drainage pattern and the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene depositional history of the region. As a result, a new comprehensive lithostratigraphical framework has been established.Study of the succession at Hambach showed the occurrence of deposits of the Rhine, Meuse and a local river in the Lower Pleistocene part of the succession. Paleo- and rockmagnetic studies of the deposits marking the transition from Pliocene to Pleistocene indicate that the Gauss-Matuyama magnetic reversal occurs several meters above the top of the Reuver Clay at Hambach.The study of the Lower Pleistocene succession in the type area has confirmed the recently new established lithostratigraphic framework of the Netherlands. As a consequence, the previous Dutch lithostratigraphic system which forms the basis of the chronostratigraphic subdivision of the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene of NW Europe has been proven to be inappropriate and should be abandoned. This chronostratigraphic framework is based on the interpretation of palynological data and was first established in the Netherlands during the 1960s. The new lithostratigraphic concept has revealed numerous contradictions with the chronostratigraphic framework. Based on these results it is proposed to abandon the chronostratigraphic subdivision of the Early Pleistocene in northwestern Europe.

scholarly journals The Diest Formation: a review of insights from the last decades

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
RIK HOUTHUYS ◽  
RIEKO ADRIAENS ◽  
STIJN GOOLAERTS ◽  
Piet LAGA ◽  
STEPHEN LOUWYE ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Driving Forces ◽  
Rhine River ◽  
Accommodation Space ◽  
Coastal Marine ◽  
Marine Sand ◽  
Roer Valley Graben ◽  
History Of ◽  
Dual Character ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
River Mouths

Research conducted since the 1960s on the upper Miocene Diest Formation in NE Belgium is reviewed and integrated. Their lithology unites the deposits of the glauconiferous Diest Sand in one formation, though biozones and internal sedimentary structures strongly suggest the formation may agglomerate the deposits of two separate, successive sedimentary cycles. The lowermost cycle is thought to have deposited the "Hageland Diest sand" during the early or middle Tortonian. It contains the Diest Sand in the main outcrop area in Hageland, Zuiderkempen and central Limburg, and probably also the Deurne Member near the city of Antwerpen. It furthermore includes the lower part of the Dessel Member in the central Kempen and in the Belgian part of the Roer Valley Graben (RVG). The Hageland Diest cycle represents the infill of a large tidal inlet tributary to the southern North Sea bight, then situated over the southern Netherlands and the Lower Rhine embayment. The Hageland Diest sand has the composition of a marine deposit, yet the confined area of occurrence and the presence of tens of metres deep incisions at the base, set it apart. The confinement of the embayment, strong tides and a steady supply of coastal‐marine sand are invoked as the main driving forces that resulted in the distinctive geometry and internal architecture of the unit. The upper cycle is associated with the "Kempen Diest sand", which is found in the subsurface of the RVG and the Noorderkempen. It has a late Tortonian to earliest Messinian age with progressively younger ages occurring to the NW. It encompasses the upper part of the Dessel Member and the overlying, coarser Diest Sand, and correlates to most or all of the thickly developed Diessen Formation in The Netherlands. It is the deposit of a prograding marine delta, containing both marine components and continental components fed by the palaeo‐Meuse/Rhine river mouths. Accommodation space kept increasing during deposition, due to subsidence of the deposition area, especially inside the RVG but also in the Noorderkempen. Although there is a fair consensus on the above, many concrete points about the geometry and depositional history of the Diest Formation and even a definitive decision on its single or dual character remain to be sorted out. In addition, this review excludes the Flemish Hills sand and the Gruitrode Member from the Diest Formation.

scholarly journals Fluvial deposits as a record for Late Quaternary neotectonic activity in the Rhine-Meuse delta, The Netherlands

2002 ◽  
Vol 81 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 389-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.M. Cohen ◽  
E. Stouthamer ◽  
H.J.A. Berendsen
Keyword(s):  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Maximum Displacement ◽  
Movement Rates ◽  
Fluvial Deposits ◽  
Neotectonic Activity ◽  
Roer Valley Graben ◽  
Longitudinal Profiles ◽  
Late Weichselian ◽  
Lower Rhine Embayment ◽  
Lower Rhine

AbstractNeotectonic movements have caused differential subsidence in the Lower Rhine Embayment during the Quaternary. The Late Weichselian and Holocene Rhine-Meuse fluvial archive in the central Netherlands was used to quantify neotectonic movements in a setting that was primarily controlled by sea-level rise and climate change. Evidence for neotectonic activity in the central Netherlands is reviewed. Sedimentary evidence shows that fluvial deposits of Late Weichselian and Holocene Rhine and Meuse (Maas) distributaries are vertically displaced along the northern shoulder of the Roer Valley Graben system. Elevation differences in the longitudinal profiles of Late Weichselian terrace deposits were used to quantify tectonic displacements. New results for the southeastern Rhine-Meuse delta (Maaskant area) show that displacements in the top of the Pleniglacial terrace along the Peel Boundary Fault are up to 1.4 m. The maximum displacement between the Peel Horst and the Roer Valley Graben is 2.3 m. This is equivalent to relative tectonic movement rates of 0.09-0.15 mm/yr, averaged over the last 15,000 years.

scholarly journals Paleoseismological Investigations at the Rurrand Fault, Lower Rhine Embayment

2001 ◽  
Vol 80 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 139-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Lehmann ◽  
J. Klostermann ◽  
R. Pelzing
Keyword(s):  
Active Faults ◽  
Seismic Hazard Assessment ◽  
Lower Probability ◽  
Opencast Mining ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Wide System ◽  
Roer Valley Graben ◽  
Instrumental Records ◽  
Lower Rhine Embayment ◽  
Lower Rhine

AbstractFrom 1998 to 2000, we have studied the evidence for large paleoearthquakes at the Rurrand Fault. This fault represents the eastern border of the Roer Valley Graben, which is the tectonically most active region in the Lower Rhine Embayment. The purpose of our paleoseismological studies is to enlarge the seismicity data base for this region beyond instrumental records and historical reports using indications of surface-faulting events from stratigraphie conditions at active faults. Larger time spans considered in the earthquake catalogue will enable a more reliable statistical analysis which is required for seismic hazard assessment. Based on analyses of geological data and géomorphologie investigations, detailed geophysical surveying was carried out along the southern Rurrand Fault segment for the selection of a site appropriate to paleoseismological studies. Mapping of physical parameter contrasts with seismic reflection, VES, ERT, and GPR measurements along fault-crossing profiles inferred position and near-surface structure of the fault. At the site promising the best conditions, a trench was excavated across the fault near the city of Jiilich, Germany. Within a depth of about 4 m, the Rurrand Fault was exposed in an about 50 m-wide system of faults and fault zones, affecting the stratigraphie sequence with various displacement characteristics and amounts of throw. According to heavy mineral analyses, the deposition time of most the exposed sediment strata was assigned to Pliocene and Lower Pleistocene time. These geological units are covered by loess layers deposited through so-lifluction processes during the Weichselian glacial, i.e. some tens of ka B.P., or – with lower probability – during the Saalian glacial. Several faults which had also affected the loess reflect younger fault activity. However, clear paleoseismic features were not observed in the trench, thus an unambiguous proof of the occurrence of coseismic fault displacements could not be furnished. Recently, differential subsidence due to drainage takes place in the surroundings of the nearby opencast mining. An amount of some 0.35 m, concentrated in a very narrow lateral zone, has been observed during the last 40 a at about 1 km distance from the trench position. To date, the subsidence could not be clearly located in the trench exposure. Results from geodetic levelling campaigns will help to determine the offset residuals and to gain better insight into the ruling displacement processes at the Rurrand Fault.

Environmental history of the German Lower Rhine Embayment during the Middle Miocene as reflected by carbon isotopes in brown coal

1999 ◽  
Vol 154 (4) ◽  
pp. 339-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Lücke ◽  
Gerhard Helle ◽  
Gerhard H. Schleser ◽  
Isabel Figueiral ◽  
Volker Mosbrugger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Carbon Isotopes ◽  
Brown Coal ◽  
Middle Miocene ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lower Rhine Embayment ◽  
Lower Rhine

An Early Pleistocene gray whale (Cetacea: Eschrichtiidae) from the Rio Dell Formation of northern California

2015 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng-Hsiu Tsai ◽  
Robert W. Boessenecker
Keyword(s):  
North Pacific ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Western North Pacific ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Gray Whale ◽  
Northern California ◽  
Humboldt County ◽  
Posterior Process ◽  
Lower Pleistocene ◽  
History Of

AbstractThe earliest fossil gray whale (Eschrichtius) from the eastern North Pacific is reported from the Lower Pleistocene Rio Dell Formation of Humboldt County, Northern California. This specimen, a tympanic bulla and posterior process, is identical in morphology to extantEschrichtius robustusand differs from PlioceneEschrichtiussp. from the western North Pacific (Japan). Thus, it suggests that the modern bulla morphology of the gray whale had been acquired by the Early Pleistocene. The absence of fossilEschrichtiusin the Pliocene of the eastern North Pacific may indicate that the extant gray whale lineage originated in the western North Pacific during the Pliocene before invading the eastern North Pacific during the Early Pleistocene. Further discoveries of Plio-Pleistocene gray whale fossils will help test this hypothesis and properly interpret the evolutionary history of eschrichtiid clade.

scholarly journals A Giant Ostrich from the Lower Pleistocene Nihewan Formation of North China, with a Review of the Fossil Ostriches of China

Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Eric Buffetaut ◽  
Delphine Angst
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
North China ◽  
Hebei Province ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Wide Geographical Distribution ◽  
Lower Pleistocene ◽  
The Crimea

A large incomplete ostrich femur from the Lower Pleistocene of North China, kept at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris), is described. It was found by Father Emile Licent in 1925 in the Nihewan Formation (dated at about 1.8 Ma) of Hebei Province. On the basis of the minimum circumference of the shaft, a mass of 300 kg, twice that of a modern ostrich, was obtained. The bone is remarkably robust, more so than the femur of the more recent, Late Pleistocene, Struthio anderssoni from China, and resembles in that regard Pachystruthio Kretzoi, 1954, a genus known from the Lower Pleistocene of Hungary, Georgia and the Crimea, to which the Nihewan specimen is referred, as Pachystruthio indet. This find testifies to the wide geographical distribution of very massive ostriches in the Early Pleistocene of Eurasia. The giant ostrich from Nihewan was contemporaneous with the early hominins who inhabited that region in the Early Pleistocene.

Geometric morphometric analysis of different species of Cyprideis deriving from the Early Pleistocene record of Greece.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ypermachia Dimitriou ◽  
Penelope Papadopoulou ◽  
Maria Kolendrianou ◽  
Maria Tsoni ◽  
George Iliopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Endemic Species ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Geometric Morphometric ◽  
Representative Species ◽  
Lower Pleistocene ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Outline Analysis ◽  
Geometric Morphometric Analysis ◽  
The Right ◽  
Of Greece

<p>The genus Cyprideis is one of the most widespread ostracod representative of the Pleistocene brackish palaeoenvironments. Especially <em>Cyprideis torosa </em>is often found in great numbers and even in monospecific taphocoenoses and for this reason its study is very useful for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions.  The identification of different species of Cyprideis is often complicated and needs careful morphology inspection. This becomes even more difficult in the case of endemic species which present significant similarities with each other.  In this work, we have studied and analyzed several  Cyprideis species (<em>C.torosa, C. frydaci, C.dictyoti, C. pannonica, C. elisabeta, C. seminulum, C. heterostigma</em>) deriving from brackish palaeoenvironments of a Lower Pleistocene marl sequence in Sousaki Basin (Northeastern Corinth Graben, Greece). More specifically size measurements and geometric morphometrics (lateral valve outline of both right and left valves as well as females and males) were used in order to attest the similarities and dissimilarities between the different species and draw conclusions about their origin.  According to the valve outline and the multivariate analysis a close relationship between the valve shape of all Cyprideis species can be noticed. <em>C. torosa</em> is commonly grouped with <em>C. pannonica</em> except in the male right valve where the two species show some differences.  The endemic species <em>C. frydaci</em> and <em>C. dictyoti</em> can be identified by the differences in the right valve of the male and female respectively.  The other species could not be substantially differentiated using just the outline analysis which possibly denotes their common genetic origin.  The valve outline has proved to be a very useful character for recognizing the different species especially when the two valves of both females and males are considered. More analyses of representative species of Miocene and Pliocene Cyprideis are needed in order to establish their phylogenetic relationships and draw conclusions about their common ancestor.</p>

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