Articles | Volume 73, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-73-139-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-73-139-2024
Express report
 | 
18 Jul 2024
Express report |  | 18 Jul 2024

Older than expected: fluvial aggradation of the Rhine's main terrace at Kärlich dated around 1.5 Ma by electron spin resonance

Melanie Bartz, Mathieu Duval, María Jesús Alonso Escarza, and Gilles Rixhon

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Cited articles

Boenigk, W. and Frechen, M.: The Pliocene and Quaternary fluvial archives of the Rhine system, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 25, 550–574, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2005.01.018, 2006. 
Boenigk, W. and Frechen, M.: Zur Geologie der Deckschichten von Kärlich/Mittelrhein, Eiszeitalter und Gegenwart, 48, 38–49, 1998. 
Brunnacker, K., Streit, R., and Schirmer, W.: Der Aufbau der Quartär-Profile von Kärlich /Neuwieder Becken (Mittelthein), Naturhistor. Museum, 8, 102–133, 1969. 
Channell, J. E. T., Singer, B. S., and Jicha, B. R.: Timing of Quaternary geomagnetic reversals and excursions in volcanic and sedimentary archives, Quaternaary Sci. Rev., 228, 106114, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.106114, 2020. 
Cohen, K. M. and Gibbard, P. L.: Global chronostratigraphical correlation table for the last 2.7 million years, version 2019 QI-500, Quaternay Int., 500, 20–31, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2019.03.009, 2019. 
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Short summary
The chronostratigraphy of the Rhine’s main terrace along the Middle Rhine Valley (MRV) is poorly constrained. This study fills this gap by using electron spin resonance (ESR) dating of quartz grains collected from the famous Kärlich site. Consistent ESR results date this terrace to ~1.5 Ma and have far-reaching implications as they numerically constrain, for the first time, the aggradation time of key terrace deposits along the MRV, providing new insights into the Rhine’s Quaternary evolution.
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