Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1002/esp.5296
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) The fluvial architecture of buried floodplain sediments of the Weiße Elster River (Germany) revealed by a novel method combination of drill cores with two-dimensional and spatially resolved geophysical measurements
Author von Suchodoletz, H.; Pohle, M.; Khosravichenar, A.; Ulrich, M.; Hein, M.; Tinapp, C.; Schultz, J.; Ballasus, H.; Veit, U.; Ettel, P.; Werther, L.; Zielhofer, C.; Werban, U. ORCID logo
Source Titel Earth Surface Processes and Landforms
Year 2022
Department MET
Volume 47
Issue 4
Page From 955
Page To 976
Language englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
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Keywords fluvial geomorphology; floodplain research; fluvial architecture; geophysical measurements; spatial upscaling; Little Ice Age; Central Europe
Abstract The complex and non-linear fluvial river dynamics are characterized by repeated periods of fluvial erosion and re-deposition in different parts of the floodplain. Understanding the fluvial architecture, i.e. the threedimensional arrangement and genetic interconnectedness of different sediment types, is therefore fundamental to obtain well-based information about controlling factors. However, investigating the fluvial architecture in buried floodplain deposits without natural exposures is challenging. We studied the fluvial architecture of the middle Weiße Elster floodplain in Central Germany, an extraordinary long-standing archive of Holocene flooding and landscape changes in sensitive loess-covered Central European landscapes. We applied a novel systematic approach by coupling two-dimensional transects of Electrical Resistivity Measurements (ERT) and closely spaced core drillings with spatially resolved measurements of Electromagnetic Induction (EMI) of larger floodplain areas at three study sites. This allowed (i) for time and cost-efficient core drillings based on preceding ERT-measurements, and (ii) to spatially scale up the main elements of the fluvial architecture such as the distribution of thick silt-clay overbank deposits and paleochannel patterns from the floodplain transects to larger surrounding areas. We found that fine-grained sand and silt-clay overbank deposits overlying basal gravels were deposited during several periods of intensive flooding. Those were separated from each other by periods of reduced flooding allowing soil formation. However, the overbank deposits were severely laterally eroded before and during each sedimentation period. This was probably linked with pronounced meandering or even braiding of the river. Our preliminary chronological classification suggests that first fine-grained sedimentation must have occurred during the Early to Middle Holocene, and the last phase of lateral erosion and sedimentation during the Little Ice Age. Our study demonstrates the high archive potential of the buried fluvial sediments of the middle Weiße Elster floodplain, and provides a promising time and cost-effective approach for future studies of buried floodplain sediments.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=25415
von Suchodoletz, H., Pohle, M., Khosravichenar, A., Ulrich, M., Hein, M., Tinapp, C., Schultz, J., Ballasus, H., Veit, U., Ettel, P., Werther, L., Zielhofer, C., Werban, U. (2022):
The fluvial architecture of buried floodplain sediments of the Weiße Elster River (Germany) revealed by a novel method combination of drill cores with two-dimensional and spatially resolved geophysical measurements
Earth Surf. Process. Landf. 47 (4), 955 - 976 10.1002/esp.5296