Late Pleistocene alluvial plain sedimentation in Lower Narmada Valley, Western India: Palaeoenvironmental implications

Late Pleistocene fluvial sediments that were deposited in a slowly sinking basin are now exposed as 30-50 m high incised vertical cliffs all along the Lower Narmada Valley in western India. The exposed fluvial deposits have been classified into two sediment packages, alluvial fan sediments overlain by alluvial plain sediments. The alluvial plain sequence has not been studied previously. It consists mainly of sands and silts and is dominated by overbank deposits. Occurrence of large scale bedforms in the alluvial plain sequence points to the existence of a large sand bed river in an alluvial plain setting. The major sedimentary facies in stratigraphic order include large channel fills, giant epsilon cross bedded strata, overbank fines occurring in horizontal, massive and undulatory stratified forms associated with crevasse splay and backswamp deposits, and a reddish brown palaeosol overlain by thinly stratified sands and silts at the top of the exposed sediment succession. Large sized channel fills occur at two stratigraphic levels, which are morphologically similar and are indicative of high rates of deposition and avulsion. The large channel fill structures and the giant epsilon cross bedded strata indicate a large single channel river that was consistently 10-15 m deep and about 70-80 m wide even during the dry seasons. These dimensions are larger than those of the present day Narmada River at low discharge levels. The overbank sediments indicate rapid deposition through frequent overbank floods and floodplain aggradation by a laterally shifting river. Available chronologic data suggests that the reddish brown palaeosol correlates with a regional phase of pedogenesis in the alluvial plain of Gujarat prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The thinly stratified sands and silts overlying the palaeosol were deposited by a considerably depleted but perennial river during the arid phase of the Last Glacial Maximum. Overall, the alluvial plain sediments of the Lower Narmada valley, particularly those below the palaeosol, have been attributed to a hyper-avulsive large river with low sinuosity whose high discharge levels were determined primarily by a large catchment area further to the east and not by the semiarid climate prevailing in the Gujarat alluvial plain during the upper part of the Late Pleistocene. The study concludes that the Narmada River has maintained a large catchment at least since the last 100 ka, however, the river was characterised by a much bigger channel during much of the Late Pleistocene with discharge levels higher than the present day.