Fluvial response to Late Quaternary sea level changes along the Mahanadi delta, east coast of India
Introduction
The concept of the base level has been critically important to understand the fluvio-geomorphic response to external forcings. The base level is the lowest limit to which a river can flow and erode its bed, the ultimate base level being the sea level (Powell, 1875; Schumm, 1993). The sea level has fluctuated many times in the earth's history (Banerjee, 1993, 2000; Murray-Wallace and Woodroffe, 2014). The Quaternary has witnessed sea level changes up to 100 m, resulting from fluctuation of ice volumes during the glacial and interglacial cycles (Schumann et al., 2016; Martinson et al., 1987; Hope, 2005; Murray-Wallace and Woodroffe, 2014). Tectonically driven upliftment and subsidence are the other major contributing factors to sea level change. Fluvial channels respond to sea level change by adjusting their length, gradient, width, sinuosity, and pattern, to adjust their flow velocity and sediment discharge. Previous studies concerning fluvial response to sea level change have focused on paleochannel morphology/pattern, such as anastomosing-meandering transition (Smith et al., 1989; Tornqvist, 1993; Makaske, 2001), river mouth shift (Dominguez et al., 1987; Schumm, 1993; Kapsimalis et al., 2005; Hijma and Cohen, 2011; Wang et al., 2018; Xue, 1993; Ren and Shunan, 1990), and paleo-dendritic channels (Gammisch et al., 1988; Schumm, 1993; Eisma, 1998; Kong et al., 2011), to reconstruct paleo-coastline positions. Anastomosing channels are formed due to aggradations during transgression and are readjusted to straight/meandering channels at a lower slope during regression (David Knighton and Nanson, 1993; Tornqvist, 1993; Berendsen and Berendsen, 1995; Makaske, 2001). Channel avulsion associated with sea level rise shifts the river mouth (Schumm, 1993; Hori et al., 2002; Tanabe et al., 2006; Hori and Saito, 2007; Tamura et al., 2009; Tjallingii et al., 2010, 2014; Hijma and Cohen, 2011; Stouthamer et al., 2011; Zong et al., 2012; Song et al., 2013). Flow accumulation generates dendritic drainage networks in low-lying areas near the coast (Schumm, 1993). These near coastal dendritic channels have low base level erosion capacity and are abandoned when sea level retreats. The paleo-dendritic channels have been used to demarcate the paleo-coastline positions in stratigraphic record (Fan et al., 1990; Nordfjord et al., 2005). The coastal zone channel morphological changes are preserved as paleochannels in the sedimentary record and provide evidence of paleo-coastline position. Correlation among the morphology of coastal zone paleochannels and sea level changes has been well documented in previous studies (Colman and Mixon, 1988; Fan et al., 1990; Koss et al., 1994; Donoghue and White, 1995; Sloss et al., 2005; Weschenfelder et al., 2010; Ishihara et al., 2012; Bae et al., 2018; Bufarale et al., 2019).
Instead of the fact that these channel morphological studies have played a key role in reconstructing past sea level changes, these studies have been limited to a few deltaic areas. Unlike the tectonically active regions of the world, where structure control on drainage morphological changes is well established, empirical evidence supporting fluvial response to sea level changes lacks due to a limited number of studies. Moreover, our ability to interpret fluvio-geomorphic changes in dynamic environmental settings is confounded by the complexity of river response to external forcings, as different allogenic (climate, tectonics, and eustasy) and autogenic (river processes) forcings can produce similar river morphological changes in the fluvial realm (Schumm, 1993). Therefore, more insight into the nature of the controls on fluvial channel morphological changes is needed to facilitate a better understanding of fluvial response to external forcings.
This study aims to investigate the paleo-fluvial morphological changes in the Mahanadi delta and correlate with the paleo-sea level changes. Mahalik (2000, 2006) reconstructed the Late Quaternary strandline positions along the Mahanadi delta (Fig. 1), using facies variations and fossil assemblages from borehole cuttings. The Mio-Pliocene, Late-Upper Pleistocene, and Holocene periods witnessed marine transgression, punctuated by intervals of regressional phases. With this high-resolution paleo-sea level record, Mahanadi delta is an ideal site to study fluvial response to sea level changes, as (i) the delta is situated in a passive continental margin (Subrahmanyam and Chand, 2006); hence tectonic control on channel morphologic changes can be ruled out; (ii) the distributary systems of the Mahanadi delta have evolved during successive stages of progradation from Mio-Pliocene to Holocene (Mahalik, 2006), suggesting that the Late Quaternary sea level changes modified the fluvio-geomorphic architecture of the delta; (iii) the delta experiences a uniform climate, suggesting that the major allogenic forcings, i.e., climate and sea level changes can be assumed to have acted uniformly and simultaneously on all the drainage systems of the delta.
Section snippets
Physiography and tectonic settings
The Mahanadi delta covering an area of approximately 9000 km2 lies between 19°40ʹ to 20°35ʹ N latitude and 85°40ʹ to 86°45ʹ E longitude, along the east coast of India. This arcuate-shaped delta has a coastline of about 200 km. The Mahanadi River originates from the state of Chhatisgarh and flows for about 400 km before entering into the apex of the delta at Naraj (Fig. 1). The Mahanadi River develops northeast, southeast, and east-flowing distributaries at the apex of the delta. The northeast
Methodology
An integrated study was conducted using remote sensing-based channel morphological analysis and Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) chronology of paleochannels, to correlate different fluvio-geomorphological features of the Mahanadi delta with marine transgression/regression events.
Paleochannels along the paleostrandlines
Different generations of paleochannels are observed in the Mahanadi delta, corresponding to different stages of delta progradation (Fig. 2). These paleochannels abruptly end along the paleostrandlines. Though recent fluvio-geomorphic processes have obliterated the morphology of these channels, they reveal stages of delta progradation from Mio-Pliocene to Holocene. The paleochannels along the Mio-Pliocene strandline are distributaries of the major rivers, whereas the Pleistocene and Holocene
Paleo-fluvial morphological changes along the paleostrandlines of the Mahanadi delta
The paleo-fluvial morphological changes observed along the paleostrandlines of the Mahanadi delta are the modification of the anastomosing fluvial system to meandering channel, river mouth shift, and formation of dendritic drainage networks. Several generations of dendritic and complex network paleochannels demarcate the paleostrandline positions. Alteration of anastomosing to meandering fluvial systems at the paleostrandlines distinguishes late Quaternary marine transgression and regression
Conclusions
- i.
The anastomosing-meandering transition, river mouth shift, and the dendritic channels along the paleostrandlines are indicative of different stages of marine transgression and regression along the Mahanadi delta.
- ii.
OSL ages of paleo-flow paths and meander scars indicate that the river mouth shift occurred due to Holocene transgressional events. Most of the river sinuosities along the present-day coast are because of mouth shift along the paleo-coasts. The chronology of dendritic channels supports
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
We sincerely acknowledge the criticism and constructive suggestions made by the reviewers and the editor for the improvement of this manuscript. The authors are grateful to anonymous reviewers for thorough reading and comments on the early draft of this manuscript. We are thankful to the Director, IISER Kolkata, for providing the OSL dating facility. Thanks to SRC chairman Prof. A. K. Sen, Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee for his constant support and
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