Shallow sub-surface stratigraphy of the Ganga basin, Himalayan foreland: Present status and future perspectives

The Ganga basin in northern India is one of the world’s largest fluvial basins and has attracted enormous attention from earth scientists across the globe with a view to understanding large river processes and landforms. Despite the scarcity of hydrological data from the Ganga basin, some important studies have been carried out in the last several decades. However, the unavailability of deep sections in this vast alluvial tract has always limited understanding of the sub-surface stratigraphy of these plains. During the last decade, some important developments have taken place in integrating exposed cliff section data with the drill cores in pre-defined transects and with targeted geophysical investigations. Additionally, new areas of the basin have been studied for understanding landscape evolution including the effects of active tectonics. This special issue of Quaternary International highlights some of these developments from the stratigraphic archives of this large basin. This collection of papers covers a wide gamut of subjects including terrace development in the frontal parts of the Ganga basin, resistivity-based mapping of sub-surface stratigraphy, micromorphology of soils from plains drill-core samples, historical-scale avulsion of large dynamic system such as the Kosi, active tectonics and landform development in southern Ganga plains and finally some policy issues for management of dynamic river systems. This introductory paper provides a background and present status of research in the Ganga basin. It attempts to summarise some of the recent research developments in the Ganga basin research and highlights the unresolved issues, some of which have been addressed through the contributions in this special issue.