Global correlation of long Quaternary fluvial sequences: a review of baseline knowledge and possible methods and criteria for establishing a database

Abstract

Fluvial sequences, particularly major terrace staircases, represent potential archives of palaeoclimatic fluctuation during the Quaternary. Such sequences can span much if not all of the Quaternary and, provided that dating is possible, can serve as stratigraphical frameworks for correlation with evidence from other depositional environments. In particular, they can provide a terrestrial lithostratigraphical framework that can be correlated with the global marine oxygen isotope record. Fluvial lithos-tratigraphical frameworks also provide important contexts for records of faunal evolution and human occupation, the latter largely determined from the occurrence of artefacts in fluviatile sediments.

This paper announces a new project within the International Geological Correlation Programme, devoted to fluvial sequences (IGCP 449 ‘Global Correlation of Late Cenozoic fluvial deposits’). It attempts to summarize existing baseline knowledge at the outset of the project and outlines the proposed methods and criteria for establishing a database of fluvial sequences.