The Pleistocene drainage pattern in the Lower Rhine Basin

Abstract

AbstractDuring the Pleistocene the drainage pattern in the Lower Rhine Basin changed twice, from a flooding of the whole basin by the river Rhine from SW to NE to an influence restricted to the NE only.The first dominance of the river Rhine is documented from the Reuverian to the Tiglian, the second one in the Cromerian. In between this time, the Meuse River drained the central Lower Rhine Basin in NE direction. For the sediments of that river, the term ‘Holzweiler Formation’ is introduced. Since the Late Cromerian, the influence of the Rhine is again restricted to the NE of the Lower Rhine Basin. The central part of the basin is drained by small local rivers.