Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Causes, consequences and chronology of large-magnitude palaeoflows in Middle and Late Pleistocene river systems of northwest Europe

Westaway, R.; Bridgland, D.R.

Authors

R. Westaway



Abstract

This study examines the record of high-palaeoflow phases in river systems in northwest Europe, investigating their causes (whether due to ‘unique’ events, such as the formation of the Dover Strait, or as ‘characteristic’ consequences of climate change), examining their consequences with regard to landscape evolution and possible effects on climate, and determining the chronology of key events. Large-magnitude palaeoflows, more than an order-of-magnitude larger than present-day flood peaks, are shown to be characteristic of rivers in this region at particular times within the Pleistocene. These events, the most recent of which were during Heinrich events 2 and 1 at ∼25 and ∼17 ka, were evidently caused by the combined effects of glacial outwash, rainfall, snowmelt and melting of permafrost in some proportion. They released such large volumes of water that the thermohaline circulation of the Atlantic Ocean, and thus the climate, may well have been affected. These large-magnitude palaeoflows are thus a significant aspect of the Pleistocene Earth system that has hitherto gone unquantified.

Citation

Westaway, R., & Bridgland, D. (2010). Causes, consequences and chronology of large-magnitude palaeoflows in Middle and Late Pleistocene river systems of northwest Europe. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 35(9), 1071-1094. https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.1968

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jan 1, 2010
Deposit Date Jul 7, 2010
Journal Earth Surface Processes and Landforms
Print ISSN 0197-9337
Electronic ISSN 1096-9837
Publisher British Society for Geomorphology
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 35
Issue 9
Pages 1071-1094
DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.1968
Keywords Pleistocene, Rivers, Climate, Europe, Palaeoflow, Drainage systems.