External controls on Quaternary fluvial incision and terrace formation at the Segre River, Southern Pyrenees

Focusing on climatic- and structural (tectonic) controls, we aim to determine their relative importance for the (Pliocene to Quaternary) fluvial landscape evolution in the Southern Pyrenees foreland. We investigate the Segre River, which is one of the major streams of the Southern Pyrenees that drains the elevated chain towards the Ebro foreland basin. Along its course, the Segre River has a flight of fluvial cut-and-fill (and strath-type) terraces preserved that have been mapped based on DEM's and geomorphological fieldwork. This paper presents the first results of our study and reports on the Segre terrace staircase, which is characterized by seven major Quaternary terrace levels with elevations up to more than 110 m above the modern floodplain. At the upper and middle reaches, the semi-parallel terraces of the Segre River occasionally show anomalies featuring extensive gravel thickness and deformation caused by faulting, folding and local subsidence. The longitudinal correlations of terrace levels reveal increased vertical terrace spacing in the foreland, which could originate from enhanced fluvial erosion after the Mid-Pleistocene climate transition in combination with base level lowering controlled by the progressive downcutting of the Catalan Coastal Range. Since the Ebro Basin opening (Late Miocene), the Catalan Coastal Range, which borders the Ebro foreland basin to the Mediterranean Sea, was progressively cut down and the exorheic drainage system gradually adjusted to sea level. The Segre longitudinal terrace profiles and the Ebro gorge morphology at the Catalan Coastal Range indicate a base-level of about 200 m.s.l. at the beginning of (Pleistocene) terrace formation, which implies that the Catalan Coastal Range might have functioned as a local base-level upstream of the sea outlet, presumably until the Late Pleistocene. Alternatively, a yet unknown tectonic process might have caused base level lowering and the preservation of terrace staircases at the Ebro drainage system.

► River terrace formation is explained by Pleistocene glacial–interglacial cycles.
► Terrace staircase formation requires increased foreland incision in the Ebro Basin.
► Foreland incision seems to be controlled by combined climatic and tectonic controls.
► In the Pleistocene the Catalan Range functioned as the Ebro drainage base level.