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Morava River floodplain development during the last millennium, Stránické Pomoraví, Czech Republic

Institute of Geology AS CR, v.v.i., Rozvojová 269, 165 00 Prague, Czech Republic, kadlec{at}gli.cas.cz

T. Grygar

Institute of Inorganic Chemistry AS CR, v.v.i., Analytical Laboratory, 250 68 Re, Czech Republic

I. Svétlík

Nuclear Physics Institute AS CR, v.v.i., CRL Radiocarbon Laboratory, Na Truhláce 39/64, 180 86 Prague, Czech Republic

V. Ettler

Institute of Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Mineral Resources, Charles University, Albertov 6, 128 43 Prague, Czech Republic

M. Mihaljevi

Institute of Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Mineral Resources, Charles University, Albertov 6, 128 43 Prague, Czech Republic

J.F. Diehl

Michigan Technological University, Department of Geological/Mining Engineering & Sciences, Houghton MI 49931, USA

S. Beske-Diehl

Michigan Technological University, Department of Geological/Mining Engineering & Sciences, Houghton MI 49931, USA

H. Svitavská-Svobodová

Institute of Botany AS CR, v.v.i., Zámek 1, 252 43 Prhonice by Prague, Czech Republic

Floodplain sediments deposited along the lower course of the Morava River (eastern Czech Republic), were studied in the Stránické Pomoraví region to describe the alluvial history of the river over the last millennium. The sediments exposed in up to 5 m high erosional river banks were analysed using mineral magnetic, geochemical and chemical approaches. The age model of the sedimentary sequences was constructed from radiocarbon dates in association with ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁷Pb and POP (DDT, PCB) analysis and ¹³⁷Cs activity data. The Cu-trien method was used for stratigraphically correlating these deposits based on the variation of expandable clay minerals in the sediments. The resulting stratigraphic pattern reveals the alluvial history of the currently active river channel system since the end of the first millennium AD. Fine overbank clayey sediments deposited during the `Mediaeval Warm Period' were eroded from cultivated fields newly formed during Mediaeval colonization between 1250 and 1450. These fine deposits are overlain by coarser floodplain sediments of the `Little Ice Age', indicating a change in the sediment source since the sixteenth century AD, and a substantial increase in the sediment load in the second half of twentieth century. The Stránické Pomoraví floodplain deposits represent a valuable palaeoenvironmental archive of the last millennium, containing records of fluvial processes considerably altered by human activities.

Key Words: Floodplain deposits • river activity reconstruction • last millennium • Morava River • expandable clay minerals • Cu-trien analysis • mineral magnetic measurements • lead isotope analysis • Czech Republic.

The Holocene, Vol. 19, No. 3, 499-509 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0959683608101398


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