Mapping and Interpretation of Fluvial Archives

Fluvial archives take the form of river-deposited sediments and depositional or erosional landforms. Together they provide a record of fluvial activity that can extend back through the life of a river but, importantly, they also represent an archive of terrestrial environments and climate during that time.  Fluvial sediments can contain numerous proxies for palaeo-environmental conditions as well as archaeological data, all of potential for study in this project.  A Wear project would build on previous work on the Ure, Swale and Tees, looking at the archive from Durham’s river since it (re)emerged from the MIS 2 glaciation, during which time it has incised its valley to form gorges (including the Durham meander) and, in less constricted reaches, flights of terraces representing the latest Devensian and Holocene.  The study and dating of these terrace remnants, for example using the optically stimulated luminescence method, would greatly improve knowledge of the incision process and its timing.  In areas glaciated during MIS 2 the fluvial archives are dominantly of post-glacial origin, although they typically overlie a buried pre-glacial valley, from which they diverge locally (the Durham meander is again an example).  Study of the pre-glacial fluvial course and the glacial deposits that largely obliterate it can be included in the study.  This type of project can be adapted to operate in other river systems both within and beyond the MIS 2 glacial limit; for those outside that limit the sedimentary archive can extend back into the Pleistocene and record environmental change over numerous Milankovitch climate cycles.

Whilst the project was developed with the River Wear in mind, the project could be adapted to investigate other rivers.

If you are interested in this project please contact the lead supervisor

Prof. David Bridgland (d.r.bridgland@durham.ac.uk)

Key references

Bridgland, D.R. (2010). The record from British Quaternary river systems within the context of global fluvial archives. Journal of Quaternary Science, 25, 433–446.

Bridgland, D.R., Westaway, R., Howard, A.J., Innes, J.B., Long, A.J., Mitchell, W.A., White, M.J. & White, T.S. (2010). The role of glacio-isostasy in the formation of post-glacial river terraces in relation to the MIS 2 ice limit: evidence from northern England. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, 121, 113–127.

Mitchell, W.A., Bridgland, D.R. & Innes, J.B. (2010). Late Quaternary evolution of the Tees-Swale interfluve east of the Pennines: The role of glaciation in the development of river systems in northern England. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, 121, 410–422.