Abstract
The Quaternary (starting from ~2.6 million years ago) climate changes have progressively triggered abrupt changes in the fluvial system and the resultant signatures are captured in the fluvial archives which are used as climate proxies to detect the palaeoclimate. In this chapter, the stratigraphic exposures, sediment characteristics, and dating information have been utilised to reconstruct the palaeoclimate in the alluvial valley of the Damodar River, West Bengal. This study has identified four distinct Quaternary geological units of the lower Damodar River Basin (DRB)—Lalgarh, Sijua, Chuchura, and Hooghly—morphostratigraphic units which belong to the northwestern part of the Bengal Basin. Analysing the architectures of different lithofacies, approximately six to seven climate changes (semi-arid to warm–humid) occurred in the study area from ~14 and 6 kiloannum (ka). Alongside these climate changes (from Late Pleistocene to Late Holocene) were directly linked the variability of the southwest monsoon (SWM) in two forms: (1) the semi-arid climate (i.e. the onset of low-strength SWM, associated with caliches, pond, and backswamp deposits of waning low-energy floods), and (2) the warm–humid climate (i.e., the onset of high-strength SWM, bearing imprints of sandy bedforms, valley fills, slack water deposits (SWD) of extreme floods, and ferruginous nodules).
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Acknowledgements
This research work is guided by Prof. Sanat Kumar Guchhait (Department of Geography, The University of Burdwan, West Bengal) who has made invaluable efforts, suggestions, and ideas to frame this work. The authors are very grateful to the Department of Geography, The University of Burdwan for providing the necessary facilities to undertake this work. The authors are also indebted to the Geological Survey of India (Eastern Region, Kolkata) for providing the geological expedition reports and data.
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Ghosh, S., Islam, A. (2016). Quaternary Alluvial Stratigraphy and Palaeoclimatic Reconstruction in the Damodar River Basin of West Bengal. In: Das, B., Ghosh, S., Islam, A., Ismail, M. (eds) Neo-Thinking on Ganges-Brahmaputra Basin Geomorphology. Springer Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26443-1_1
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