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Radiocarbon dating and sedimentation rates in the Holocene alluvial sediments of the northern Bihar plains, India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Rajiv Sinha ,
Peter F. Friend  and
V. R. Switsur
Rajiv Sinha
Affiliation:
Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing St., Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK Dept. of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 208016, India
Peter F. Friend
Affiliation:
Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing St., Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK
V. R. Switsur
Affiliation:
Institute for Quaternary Research, University of Cambridge, The Godwin Laboratory, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RS, UK
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Abstract

Seven radiocarbon dates of carbonate shells and charcoal from the upper two metres of sediment in the Indo-Gangetic plains of northern Bihar, eastern India, can be divided into three groups, with the following approximate ages: 2400±45 a BP (two samples), 1100±45 a BP (four samples) and 765±45 a BP (one sample). This evidence for at least three episodes of sedimentation in the last 2400 a contrasts with evidence of greater ages from similarly near-surface sediments in the middle Gangetic plains of Uttar Pradesh, further west. In these more westerly areas, greater ages and well-developed river terraces point to much more restricted late Holocene sedimentation. Rates of net sediment accumulation calculated using our Bihar ages, spanning a period of the order of 103–104 a, are similar to those calculated for periods of the order of 105–106 a for the Himalayan foreland basin. This suggests that, in the whole basin case, short-period rates higher than the Bihar rates have been compensated by longer than Bihar periods of non-deposition or erosion.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 133 , Issue 1 , January 1996 , pp. 85 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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